Varieties of Alternatives, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2018 Focus Particles and wh-Expressions in Mandarin Frontiers in Chinese Linguistics Series, Vol. 3

This book concerns two focus particles (jiu, dou) and wh-expressions (shenme = ?what?, na geren = ?which person?) in Mandarin Chinese. These items are systematically ?ambiguous? and have played important roles in various aspects of Mandarin grammar. An idea based on alternatives and varieties of alternatives in particular ? following Chierchia?s 2013 analysis of the polarity system ? is pursued to account for the systematic ambiguities. The unambiguous semantics of jiu, dou and wh-expressions are maintained and ?ambiguity? explained through varieties of alternatives interacting with other independently motivated aspects of the structure they occur in. By examining these aspects in detail, the book will help readers gain a better understanding of a broad range of phenomena that involve these items ? including exhaustivity, distributivity, questions and conditionals.

Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. Background.- Chapter 3. Varieties of Alternatives: Mandarin Focus Particles.- Chapter 4. More Exclusives.- Chapter 5. Mandarin Wh-conditionals: Challenges and Facts.- Chapter 6. Proposal-A: Wh-conditionals as Interrogative Conditionals.- Chapter 7. Proposal-B: Wh-conditionals as Interrogative Dependency.- Chapter 8. Concluding Remarks.

Explicitly analyses a variety of linguistic phenomena in Mandarin Includes a combination of theoretical innovations and empirical coverage Explores the role of alternatives in natural language grammar Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras