Duration Phrases as Fake Nominal Quantifiers: A Functional Account with Corpus Evidence

Xiaopei Zhang; Meichun Liu

doi:10.1007/978-981-97-0586-3_35

Duration Phrases as Fake Nominal Quantifiers: A Functional Account with Corpus Evidence

Xiaopei Zhang^*
, Meichun Liu

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Linguistics and Translation

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary Works › RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication) › peer-review

Abstract

The study reexamines the grammatical status and function of the duration phrase in the V-DurP-de-NP structure wo du le santian de shu ‘I read books for three days.’ The DurP, semantically a verbal complement, is taken to be a fake nominal quantifier through a syntactic test. The puzzling form-meaning mismatch in the expression is justified from a functional perspective with corpus evidence. The study proposes that the DurP is incorporated into the object-NP to serve as an event delimiter. It is coerced into a typically nonreferential object to meet the “heavy added information constraint” hypothesized by Chafe [1]. The event-delimiting function is evidenced by the fact that DurPs are mutually exclusive with other event-delimiting measures, which is supported by corpus evidence on the referential properties of the involved NPs. This study provides new insight into the form-function pairing relation of the construction. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Chinese Lexical Semantics
Subtitle of host publication	24th Workshop, CLSW 2023, Singapore, Singapore, May 19–21, 2023, Revised Selected Papers, Part II
Editors	Minghui Dong, Jia-Fei Hong, Jingxia Lin, Peng Jin
Place of Publication	Singapore
Publisher	Springer
Pages	458-468
Number of pages	11
ISBN (Electronic)	978-981-97-0586-3
ISBN (Print)	978-981-97-0585-6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-0586-3_35
Publication status	Published - 2024
Event	24th Chinese Lexical Semantics Workshop (CLSW 2023) - National University of Singapore, Singapore Duration: 19 May 2023 → 21 May 2023 https://www.asianlp.sg/conferences/clsw2023/web/en/welcome-en/

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence)
Volume	14515
ISSN (Print)	0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)	1611-3349

Conference

Conference	24th Chinese Lexical Semantics Workshop (CLSW 2023)
Place	Singapore
Period	19/05/23 → 21/05/23
Internet address	https://www.asianlp.sg/conferences/clsw2023/web/en/welcome-en/

Funding

The first author is supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. Project number: 2019QY010.

Research Keywords

Fake nominal quantifier
Duration phrase
Form-meaning mismatch
Event delimiter

Access Output

10.1007/978-981-97-0586-3_35

Other Access Options

Check CityUHK Library

Permanent Link

Right click to copy link

Cite this

Zhang, X., & Liu, M. (2024). Duration Phrases as Fake Nominal Quantifiers: A Functional Account with Corpus Evidence. In M. Dong, J.-F. Hong, J. Lin, & P. Jin (Eds.), Chinese Lexical Semantics: 24th Workshop, CLSW 2023, Singapore, Singapore, May 19–21, 2023, Revised Selected Papers, Part II (pp. 458-468). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence); Vol. 14515). Springer . https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-0586-3_35

Zhang, Xiaopei ; Liu, Meichun. / Duration Phrases as Fake Nominal Quantifiers : A Functional Account with Corpus Evidence. Chinese Lexical Semantics: 24th Workshop, CLSW 2023, Singapore, Singapore, May 19–21, 2023, Revised Selected Papers, Part II. editor / Minghui Dong ; Jia-Fei Hong ; Jingxia Lin ; Peng Jin. Singapore : Springer , 2024. pp. 458-468 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence)).

@inproceedings{d8851f8626c2409fa076002a38d533cc,

title = "Duration Phrases as Fake Nominal Quantifiers: A Functional Account with Corpus Evidence",

abstract = "The study reexamines the grammatical status and function of the duration phrase in the V-DurP-de-NP structure wo du le santian de shu {\textquoteleft}I read books for three days.{\textquoteright} The DurP, semantically a verbal complement, is taken to be a fake nominal quantifier through a syntactic test. The puzzling form-meaning mismatch in the expression is justified from a functional perspective with corpus evidence. The study proposes that the DurP is incorporated into the object-NP to serve as an event delimiter. It is coerced into a typically nonreferential object to meet the “heavy added information constraint” hypothesized by Chafe [1]. The event-delimiting function is evidenced by the fact that DurPs are mutually exclusive with other event-delimiting measures, which is supported by corpus evidence on the referential properties of the involved NPs. This study provides new insight into the form-function pairing relation of the construction. {\textcopyright} The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.",

keywords = "Fake nominal quantifier, Duration phrase, Form-meaning mismatch, Event delimiter",

author = "Xiaopei Zhang and Meichun Liu",

year = "2024",

doi = "10.1007/978-981-97-0586-3\_35",

language = "English",

isbn = "978-981-97-0585-6",

series = "Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence)",

publisher = "Springer ",

pages = "458--468",

editor = "Minghui Dong and Jia-Fei Hong and Jingxia Lin and Peng Jin",

booktitle = "Chinese Lexical Semantics",

note = "24th Chinese Lexical Semantics Workshop (CLSW 2023) ; Conference date: 19-05-2023 Through 21-05-2023",

url = "https://www.asianlp.sg/conferences/clsw2023/web/en/welcome-en/",

}

Zhang, X & Liu, M 2024, Duration Phrases as Fake Nominal Quantifiers: A Functional Account with Corpus Evidence. in M Dong, J-F Hong, J Lin & P Jin (eds), Chinese Lexical Semantics: 24th Workshop, CLSW 2023, Singapore, Singapore, May 19–21, 2023, Revised Selected Papers, Part II. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence), vol. 14515, Springer , Singapore, pp. 458-468, 24th Chinese Lexical Semantics Workshop (CLSW 2023), Singapore, 19/05/23. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-0586-3_35

Duration Phrases as Fake Nominal Quantifiers: A Functional Account with Corpus Evidence. / Zhang, Xiaopei ; Liu, Meichun.
Chinese Lexical Semantics: 24th Workshop, CLSW 2023, Singapore, Singapore, May 19–21, 2023, Revised Selected Papers, Part II. ed. / Minghui Dong; Jia-Fei Hong; Jingxia Lin; Peng Jin. Singapore: Springer , 2024. p. 458-468 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence); Vol. 14515).

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary Works › RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication) › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - Duration Phrases as Fake Nominal Quantifiers

T2 - 24th Chinese Lexical Semantics Workshop (CLSW 2023)

AU - Zhang, Xiaopei

AU - Liu, Meichun

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - The study reexamines the grammatical status and function of the duration phrase in the V-DurP-de-NP structure wo du le santian de shu ‘I read books for three days.’ The DurP, semantically a verbal complement, is taken to be a fake nominal quantifier through a syntactic test. The puzzling form-meaning mismatch in the expression is justified from a functional perspective with corpus evidence. The study proposes that the DurP is incorporated into the object-NP to serve as an event delimiter. It is coerced into a typically nonreferential object to meet the “heavy added information constraint” hypothesized by Chafe [1]. The event-delimiting function is evidenced by the fact that DurPs are mutually exclusive with other event-delimiting measures, which is supported by corpus evidence on the referential properties of the involved NPs. This study provides new insight into the form-function pairing relation of the construction. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.

AB - The study reexamines the grammatical status and function of the duration phrase in the V-DurP-de-NP structure wo du le santian de shu ‘I read books for three days.’ The DurP, semantically a verbal complement, is taken to be a fake nominal quantifier through a syntactic test. The puzzling form-meaning mismatch in the expression is justified from a functional perspective with corpus evidence. The study proposes that the DurP is incorporated into the object-NP to serve as an event delimiter. It is coerced into a typically nonreferential object to meet the “heavy added information constraint” hypothesized by Chafe [1]. The event-delimiting function is evidenced by the fact that DurPs are mutually exclusive with other event-delimiting measures, which is supported by corpus evidence on the referential properties of the involved NPs. This study provides new insight into the form-function pairing relation of the construction. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.

KW - Fake nominal quantifier

KW - Duration phrase

KW - Form-meaning mismatch

KW - Event delimiter

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85187693427

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85187693427#tab=impact

U2 - 10.1007/978-981-97-0586-3_35

DO - 10.1007/978-981-97-0586-3_35

M3 - RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication)

SN - 978-981-97-0585-6

T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence)

SP - 458

EP - 468

BT - Chinese Lexical Semantics

A2 - Dong, Minghui

A2 - Hong, Jia-Fei

A2 - Lin, Jingxia

A2 - Jin, Peng

PB - Springer

CY - Singapore

Y2 - 19 May 2023 through 21 May 2023

ER -

Zhang X , Liu M. Duration Phrases as Fake Nominal Quantifiers: A Functional Account with Corpus Evidence. In Dong M, Hong JF, Lin J, Jin P, editors, Chinese Lexical Semantics: 24th Workshop, CLSW 2023, Singapore, Singapore, May 19–21, 2023, Revised Selected Papers, Part II. Singapore: Springer . 2024. p. 458-468. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence)). Epub 2024 Feb 28. doi: 10.1007/978-981-97-0586-3_35

Duration Phrases as Fake Nominal Quantifiers: A Functional Account with Corpus Evidence

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Funding

Research Keywords

Access Output

Other Access Options

Permanent Link

Other Files and Links

Fingerprint

Cite this