Semantic Orientation of the Adverbs 就 jiù e 才 cái…

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DC Field	Value
dc.identifier	ECF_article_658
dc.title	Semantic Orientation of the Adverbs 就 jiù e 才 cái in Chinese Sentences Containing Quantifiers
dc.contributor.author	Abbiati Magda
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing
dc.type	Research Article
dc.language.iso	it
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.it/en/edizioni4/riviste/annali-di-ca-foscari-serie-orientale/2017/1/orientamento-semantico-degli-avverbi-jiu-e-cai-neg/
dc.description.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.
dc.relation.ispartof	Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale
dc.relation.ispartof	Vol. 53 \| June 2017
dc.issued	2017-06-20
dc.dateAccepted	2017-03-14
dc.dateSubmitted	2016-11-17
dc.identifier.issn
dc.identifier.eissn	2385-3042
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.identifier.doi	10.14277/2385-3042/AnnOr-53-17-10
dc.peer-review	yes
dc.subject	Adverbs 就 jiù and 才 cái
dc.subject	Adverbs 就 jiù and 才 cái
dc.subject	Chinese language
dc.subject	Chinese language
dc.subject	Quantifiers
dc.subject	Quantifiers

Research Article
open access peer reviewed

Semantic Orientation of the Adverbs 就 jiù e 才 cái in Chinese Sentences Containing Quantifiers

Magda Abbiati Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia

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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.

Published

June 20, 2017

Accepted

March 14, 2017

Submitted

Nov. 17, 2016

Language

Keywords: Adverbs 就 jiù and 才 cái • Chinese language • Quantifiers

permalink http://doi.org/10.14277/2385-3042/AnnOr-53-17-10

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.

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