Bare numeral phrases in Mandarin and the Minimalist Mapping Hypothesis.

We pursue an agreement-based analysis of the bare numeral phrases in Chinese. Bare numeral phrases in Chinese often occur with the you marker in the preverbal position. With the marker, a bare numeral phrase obtains an individual-denoting reading, which has an existential meaning. In contrast, several syntactic environments do not need the you marker, and the bare numeral phrase obtains the quantity-denoting reading. In addition to the existential you marker, we observe that the distributions of the two readings are correlated to the lower (root) modals (Mod) and the middle aspects (Asp). We argue that the correlation can be analyzed through syntactic feature agreement. That is, the bare numeral phrase carries an unvalued quantificational feature in the null D, and its unvalued feature is valued by the corresponding existential you marker, Asp, and/or Mod heads through (multiple) agreement. We argue that the proposed feature agreement mechanism can improve upon the (Extended) Mapping Hypothesis (Diesing 1992; Tsai 1999, 2001) under the Minimalist Program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Chinese Linguistics is the property of John Benjamins Publishing Co. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)