Abstract
This dissertation discusses distribution of numeral phrases (NumPs) in Mandarin Chinese, especially the distribution of NumPs which are away from their related NPs. There are four cases: the first one is that the NumP precedes the verb and expresses the whole quantity of the related NP in the front of the construction (Group A); the second one is that the NumP precedes the verb and the NP has a kind-denoting reading (Group B); the third one is that the NumP is preceded by the verb and expresses a part of the NP (Group C); the fourth one is that the NumP precedes the verb, co-occurring with you ‘have’, and also has a part-of reading (Group D). Since the NumP is used for indicating the quantity of the NP, the two phrases are usually presented in a form of one constituent. However, the above four cases show that the NumP can occur in isolation without the nearby NP, which may occur elsewhere. This phenomenon leads to a question: how can we explain the semantic relation between the NumP and its related NP when they are separated? In order to answer this question, we refer to the analyses of floating quantifiers, i.e., the stranding analysis and the adverbial analysis. When these analyses are applied to Group A, however, some problems are found. Hence, this study proposes a new analysis, i.e., the argument analysis. Under this analysis, the NumP is originally merged in the VP, and the related NP occurs in topic positions or other A’- positions. This analysis can explain the distribution of NumPs in Group A, and furthermore can catch the parallelism between Group A and Groups C and D. As for Group B, we can explain the grammatical behavior of the kind-denoting NPs with the stranding analysis and the argument analysis. Groups C and D exhibit the part-whole relationship, i.e., the NP expresses the whole and the NumP the part. We assume that the DP outside the NumP has an empty determiner as a head. This empty determiner has two properties: one is anaphoricity, the other is that it should be bound by the operator or occur in a specific position for semantic interpretation. The operator includes partial you ‘have’. Although this you is a little different from existential you, the two can be classified as auxiliaries. In other words, the partial you takes a clausal argument. The morphological and grammatical evidence supports this view. This study also discusses the distribution of NumPs in Korean. Mandarin and Korean are different, but after observing the Korean examples corresponding to Groups A-D in Mandarin, we found that NumPs’ behaviors of the two languages are similar in many ways. Some distinct parts are due to the basic differences such as the existence of case markers and the word order, etc.