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Numeral-Classifier Reduplication in Beijing Mandarin

Abstract

This paper examines Numeral-Classifier Reduplication (NCR) in Beijing Mandarin, a process that takes the numeral and classifier of the subject or object of a sentence, reduplicates it, and moves this reduplicated element between the subject and the verb. This process causes the verbal event to be distributed over (1) the associated noun as well as (2) time, such that "A person walks in" after NCR would be interpreted as "Many people walk in one after another." Previous work has not been applicable because those analyses do not give correct interpretations and do not deal with the same syntactic structure in terms of the reduplicated element. Therefore, the preliminary analysis composed of three points, based off of linguistic data elicited from a consultant of native Beijing Mandarin, is as follows. One, NCR only applies to verbal events that are bound, or have natural endpoints, which corresponds with previous work that indicate the varieties of boundedness and discreteness of verbal events. Two, NCR adjoins to the syntax similar to a manner adverbial because of their similar syntactic distribution. Three, NCR's distributive interpretation is determined by the adjunction location of the reduplicated element. When NCR attaches in the higher position, distribution can be over the subject or the object, in addition to time; in the lower position, distribution can only be over the object and time. This work constitutes one of the first in-depth look at this phenomena in Mandarin and should serve as a first step in the development of a larger research program

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