焦点敏感算子中添加性如何影响量极性：汉语“连•都”和“甚至”的个案研究

How Additivity Affects Scalarity for Focus-Sensitive Operators: A Case Study of Mandarin “Lían-Dōu” vs. “Shènzhì” in Polar Questions

摘要: 和英语even相似，汉语的“连•都”和“甚至”都被认为是焦点敏感算子。本文观察到，在是非疑问句中，当“连•都”和“甚至”的焦点关联词(focus associate)在排名上模糊时，即当语境信息无法帮助听话人判断该焦点关联词在相关量表(scale)上排名高还是低时，“连•都”和“甚至”表现不同。具体而言，“甚至”和英语even一样，焦点关联词排名高和排名低的解读都能传递，而“连•都”只能传递排名高的解读。通过Guerzoni (2004)对英语是非疑问句的分析，以及Shyu (2014)的非对称预设理论——即“连•都”同时具有添加性预设(additive presupposition)和量极性(scalar presup-position)预设而“甚至”只有量极性预设——该现象能被有效解释。除了解释该现象本身外，本文的主要理论价值在于探索了焦点敏感算子添加性对量级性的影响，而现有文献一般都把这两种属性分开进行讨论。

Abstract: Analogous to English even, Mandarin Chinese “lían-dōu” and “shènzhì” are both considered to be focus-sensitive operators. This paper makes a novel observation that they behave distinctly when interacting with an ambiguously ranked focus associate in polar questions. By “ambiguously ranked focus associate”, it is meant that listeners are unable to determine whether the focus associate is ranked high or low on a relevant scale without any further contextual information. Specifically, in such cases, “shènzhì”, like English even, can convey both high-ranking and low-ranking readings while “lían-dōu” can only convey the high-ranking reading. This phenomenon is shown to be ac-counted for by adopting Guerzoni’s (2004) semantic analysis of English polar questions and Shyu’s (2014) asymmetrical presupposition that “lían-dōu” carries both an additive presupposition and a scalar presupposition whereas “shènzhì” only carries a scalar presupposition. In addition to cap-turing the novel observation per se, this paper has some theoretical implications to the discussion of focus-sensitive particles. Specifically, existing literature mainly approaches either of the two pre-suppositions independently, but this paper explores their interaction.