Sum, domain restriction and quantification–a semantic study of Quanbu in Mandarin

Abstract

This paper investigates the semantics of [quanbu] (all) in Mandarin Chinese. It is argued that in the adverbial, determiner and nominal positions quanbu takes different meanings. To be more specific, the adverb quanbu serves as a quantifier which can trigger a tripartite structure. Moreover, as a quantifier, quanbu is compatible with a sum operator with the collective property and incompatible with a sum operator taking the distributive property. The determiner quanbu is a sum operator with the collective property. The noun quanbu implies the sum of all the parts. Quanbu has some similarities and differences with [quan] (all) and [dou] (all). In the co-occurrence case of quanbu and dou, word order plays an important role to determine their division of labor.