Journal | Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale
Journal issue | 53 | 2017
Research Article | Semantic Orientation of the Adverbs 就 jiù e 才 cái in Chinese Sentences Containing Quantifiers
Semantic Orientation of the Adverbs 就 jiù e 才 cái in Chinese Sentences Containing Quantifiers
Abstract
In modern Chinese 就 jiù and 才 cái take on a quite complex relation: sometimes they appear to be synonymous and sometimes appear to be antonymous. The diverse interpreting of the two adverbial operators in contexts where quantifiers are involved is accounted for by treating them as focus markers on the one hand, and as operators expressing speaker’s subjective view of quantity on the other hand. It is argued that, as focus markers, the two of them exhibit ‘bidirectional’ properties, and it is suggested that their being synonymous or antonymous depends on their forward or backward semantic orientation. It is also pointed out that, by virtue of their semantic features, sentences with 才 cái are not ambiguous even without context, while sentences with 就 jiù can be ambiguous and the speaker’s subjective view of quantity uncertain.
Submitted: Nov. 17, 2016 | Accepted: March 14, 2017 | Published June 20, 2017 | Language: it
Keywords Adverbs 就 jiù and 才 cái • Chinese language • Quantifiers
Copyright © 2017 Magda Abbiati. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.14277/2385-3042/AnnOr-53-17-10
