zhi-{yao, you} ‘only-{need, have}’: on two conditional connectives in Mandarin

Abstract

This paper offers a compositional take on two internally complex conditional connectives in Mandarin, zhi-yao ‘only-need’ and zhi-you ‘only-have’. While the former conveys the antecedent proposition’s minimal sufficiency, the latter conveys its necessity for the consequent proposition to come true. Both connectives will be treated as pairing an exclusive particle, zhi, with a modal, an assumption that is less controversial for the necessity modal yao than for you, which will be treated as a possibility modal. Accepting this treatment, however, we have two connectives that openly differ in modal force. While the surface order will be preserved for zhi-you, an inversion will be shown to lead to better results for zhi-yao. In both cases, a possible extension to monoclausal uses is considered.