Number System of the Noun Phrases in Mandarin Chinese

What is it about?

This paper aims to account for the number system of the noun phrases modified by the demonstrative pronouns in Mandarin Chinese. The cross-linguistic analysis indicates that the noun phrases modified by the demonstrative pronouns in both English and Mandarin Chinese have developed a rigorous grammatical system to represent the property of number. However, whereas the English noun phrases highlight the distinction between singular and plural forms, the Chinese ones tend to distinguish specific quantity from indefinite quantity. A new classificatory framework is proposed to analyse the ‘Demonstrative Pronoun + NP’ structure in Mandarin Chinese, and to explain its unique grammatical behaviours.

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Why is it important?

Our findings indicate that whereas the English noun phrases highlight the distinction between singular and plural forms, the Chinese ones tend to distinguish specific quantity from indefinite quantity.