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Article In: International Journal of Chinese Linguistics: Online-First Articles

Embedded reciprocal equatives in Mandarin and semantic weakening

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Abstract
In this paper I present a novel observation on reciprocal equatives (henceforth, RE) in Mandarin: a reciprocal equative, when embedded under a necessity modal or a predicate of desire, gives rise to an unexpected, at-least-equal-to interpretation (henceforth, ≥-interpretation). I show that the meaning of a modal sentence or a desire report of this kind may be derived through the postulation of two covert operators: one is akin to at least and serves to weaken the meaning of the embedded RE; the other is an exhaustification operator, which gives rise to the inference of sufficiency. Along with Alonso-Ovalle, L., & Hirsch, A. (2022). Keep only strong. Semantics and Pragmatics, 15(6). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar analysis, the proposal draws a connection between the sufficiency modal construction (e.g., To get good cheese, you only have to go to the North Ends) and examples of embedded reciprocal equatives investigated in this paper. To the extent that the proposal is on the right track, it provides further support for the postulation of a semantic weakening operator in natural language meaning composition and sheds light on the issue how this weakening operation may be constrained (e.g., (Alonso-Ovalle, L., & Hirsch, A. (2022). Keep only strong. Semantics and Pragmatics, 15(6). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Crnič, L. (2011). Getting even [PhD thesis, Massachussettes Institute of Technology]. ; Schwarz, B. (2005). Scalar additive particles in negative contexts. Natural Language Semantics, 131, 125–168. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar)).
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1REs under necessity modals
    • 1.2REs and predicates of desire
    • 1.3Pragmatic effect?
    • 1.4Outlook and roadmap
  • 2.Labor division between weakneing and exhaustification
    • 2.1Weakening and the ≥-interpretation
    • 2.2Exhaustification and the inferences of sufficiency
    • 2.3Formalization and composition
    • 2.4At-least and at least
      • Excursion
  • 3.Implications and remarks
    • 3.1Connection to sufficiency modal constructions
    • 3.2The alternative of obtaining alternatives?
  • 4.Weakening and scalarity
    • 4.1Weak even and preferences
    • 4.2Covert even and weak REs
  • 5.Summary
  • Acknowledgment
  • Notes
  • References
References (38)
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