Abstract
This paper reports the overt quantifier raising phenomenon in Cantonese, particularly to non-existential quantifiers in the combination of a negator mou and a wh-phrase. It claims that the overt quantifier raising by successive movements is driven by the uninterpretable features [quant] (Chomsky 1995) and [neg]. A NegQP structure for negative wh-quantifiers (Neg-whQ) is proposed to account for the SOV order in Cantonese. The proposed NegQP has an unpronounced quantifier operator Ø which carries [quant] feature as its head, negator mou in spec position which specifies the phrase with [neg] feature and a wh-phrase as its complement (any DP for other non-existential quantifiers). It gives the correct order of a neg-whQ where the negator mou precedes a wh-phrase (e.g. bingo ‘who’) and NegQP inherits both [neg] and [quant] features which triggers QR that applies to any neg-whQ in Cantonese.
| Original language | English |
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| Title of host publication | Proceedings of the Sixth Cambridge Postgraduate Conference in Language Research |
| Pages | 92 |
| Number of pages | 107 |
| Publication status | Published - 2011 |
| Event | The 6th Cambridge Postgraduate Conference in Language Research - University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom Duration: 7 Dec 2010 → 8 Dec 2010 |
Conference
| Conference | The 6th Cambridge Postgraduate Conference in Language Research |
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| Country/Territory | United Kingdom |
| City | Cambridge |
| Period | 7/12/10 → 8/12/10 |