Abstract
Previous studies of Chinese wh-conditionals leave several issues unresolved, including (i) definiteness effects; (ii) apparent violations of the novelty condition and (iii) accounting for the range of readings of Chinese whconditionals. We attempt to resolve some of these issues by analysing whindefinites as unique indefinites and wh-conditionals as special instances of topic-comment structures (i.e. wh-conditionals are topic-comment structures with an identity relation). Chinese wh-conditionals can refer to either a single situation or multiple situations, leading to either a definite interpretation or a generic interpretation respectively.
| Original language | English |
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| Title of host publication | Proceedings of the 2010 Annual Conference of the Gesellschaft für Semantik |
| Editors | Ingo Reich, Eva Horch, Dennis Pauly |
| Place of Publication | Saarbrücken, Germany |
| Publisher | Universaar – Saarland University Press |
| Pages | 165-179 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9783862230389 |
| Publication status | Published - 2011 |
| Event | Sinn und Bedeutung Conference (15th : 2010) - Saarbrücken, Germany Duration: 9 Sept 2010 → 11 Sept 2010 |
Conference
| Conference | Sinn und Bedeutung Conference (15th : 2010) |
|---|---|
| City | Saarbrücken, Germany |
| Period | 9/09/10 → 11/09/10 |