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1、WEI-TIENDYLANTSAIONSUBJECTSPECIFICITYANDTHEORYOFSYNTAX-SEMANTICSINTERFACE*Thispaperdistinguishestwotypesoflanguage,V-to-Itypevs.V-to-Vtype,withaviewtoderivingtwodistinctpatternsofassociating(non-)specificinterpretationswithsubjectpositions.Intheformertype,verbsmovet
2、oahigherfunctionalhead,eitherovertlyorcovertly,andnon-specificnumeralindefinitesmayappearin[Spec,TP]atS-structure.ThisisthecasewithEnglish,wherecardinalsubjectsarecommonplace.Inthelattertype,verbsdonotmovetoahigherfunctionalhead,andnon-specificnumeralindefinitescann
3、otappearin[Spec,TP]atS-structure.ThisisthecasewithChinese,wherecardinalsubjectsarerelativelyrare.Developingtheideathatsyntax-semanticsmappingiscyclicandcloselyalignedwithsyntacticpredication,weprovideaprincipledaccountofanasymmetrybetweenChinesedeclarativeandmodalco
4、nstructionswithrespecttotheirsubjectspecificity.INTRODUCTIONTounderstandtheinterpretationsofsubjectindefinites,itisimperativetounderstandhowthedistributionofsubjectsinteractswiththelexicalsemanticsofaparticularlanguage.Itisobservedcross-linguisticallythattherearetwo
5、typesofindefinitesubjectinterpretations:Oneisquantifica-tional,includingspecificandgenericreadings;theotherisnon-quantificational,consistingofnonspecificnongenericreadings.Forexample,theEnglishsubjectof(1)isambiguous:specificasparaphrasedin(1a),andnon-specificaspara
6、phrasedin(1b):(1)Amanarrivedyesterday.a.Acertainmanarrivedyesterday.(specific)b.Oneman(ratherthantwo)arrivedyesterday.(nonspecific)Reuland(1988)amongothers,attributesthistoalexicalambiguityoftheEnglisharticlea.ItcanbeconstruedeitherasastrongdeterminerinMilsark’s(197
7、4)sense,resultinginthespecificreadingof(1),orasacardinalitypredicate,resultinginthenonspecificreadingof(1b).Ontheotherhand,itisalsorecognizedinthelinguisticliteraturethattherearetwotypesofsubjectpositionsforindefiniteNPs:Thehigheroneisasso-ciatedwithspecificorgeneri
8、creadings,whiletheloweroneisassociatedwithnonspecificreadings.Diesing(1992),forexample,pointsoutthatGermanbarepluralsubjectsmayappearinone
