pISSN: 1598-3293

영어영문학연구, Vol.63 no.1 (2021)
pp.179~201

DOI : 10.18853/jjell.2021.63.1.009

Syntax of Mandarin mei ‘every’ in Comparison with English every

Kim, Kyumin

(Chungbuk National University)

Zheng, Yanyang

(Cheongju University/Nanyang Institute of Technology)

Syntax of nominal phrases have been the center of the linguistic discussion across languages, as they reveal the core constitutes of the structural organization of nominal phrases. Numerous analyses on the syntax of nominal phrases assume the well accepted structure of a noun phrase in English, and examine whether a language in question can be accounted for by the structure of an English noun. This paper pursues this type of an approach in addressing a question of the syntax of mei ‘every’ in Mandarin by assuming a recent syntactic approach of English every in Borer (2005). Although mei in Mandarin has been paid much attention in the literature, most of the studies thus far have focused on the formal semantics of mei. Not only the syntactic proposal on mei is scarce but also its comparison to a recent proposal of syntax of English every is lacking. This paper proposes that mei is similar to English every in that it can realize a D head or Num(ber) head. However, this paper also shows that mei is different from English every: it cannot portion out a noun that denotes mass in the sense of Borer (2005). Consequently, it cannot realize a Div(ision) head instantiated by English every. Overall, this paper contributes to the current discussion on the structure of the word ‘every’ by suggesting that a nominal meaning ‘every’ across languages does not seem to share the same syntactic roles.
  분할,수량어,관형사

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