本論文的主要目的是檢測中文的低量級增強詞，「有（一）點兒」和「一點（兒）」，的極性現象。這兩個低量級增強詞常被視作英文裡'a little' 和 ' a bit' 的同義字。在以往的研究裡，這兩個英文低量級增強詞已有較多的分析，證明 'a little' 是一個減少詞和正極詞，而 ' a bit' 是極小詞和負極詞。然而，雖然此兩個英文低量級增強詞已被廣泛的研究，中文「有（一）點（兒）」和「一點（兒）」還未有類似的討論。首先，「有（一）點（兒）」和「一點（兒）」在句法上有不同的修飾位置，兩者雖然皆可修飾可分級謂語，「有（一）點（兒）」是前位修飾，「一點（兒）」是後位修飾。然而，兩者也對謂語產生不同的修飾功能，本論文採用Liu (2010) 及 Kennedy & McNally (2005) 的「隱性比較」與「顯性比較」來討論中文低量級增強詞，發現「『有（一）點（兒）』＋謂語」跟隱性比較類似，而「謂語＋『一點（兒）』」與顯性比較類似。第二，根據此種語義上的對比，更多的線索讓此論文可以區分中文低量級增強詞裡的減少詞與極小詞。然而，在採用Giannakidou(1998)的 (Non)verdicality 理論後，本論文認為在此兩個中文低量級增強詞裡並無呈現出明顯的正極詞─負極詞和減少詞─極小詞的分歧現象，因為在主要否定詞「沒有」的否定範圍中時，兩者皆可產生帶有「甚至」涵義的完全否定，此現象是一個典型的負極詞-極小詞特質。同時，當「有（一）點（兒）」和「一點（兒）」出現在否定詞「不是」（「是」作為焦點標記詞）的範圍中時，兩者皆可產生「間接肯定（litotes)」意思，此為一種元語否定的象徵，而元語否定剛好是正極詞-減少詞的常見特色。雖然如此，這篇論文提供對於中文低量級增強詞「有（一）點（兒）」和「一點（兒）」的初步研究，且提出他們句法及語義層面上的歧異性。我們認為在句法上，「有（一）點（兒）」是一個程度修飾語，而「一點（兒）」是一個度量詞組。在語義上，前者牽涉到隱性比較，而後者與顯性比較相關。然而，本論文發現中文低量級增強詞「有（一）點（兒）」和「一點（兒）」並沒有呈現出類似於英文低量及增強詞'a little’ and ‘a bit’一樣的正極詞─負極詞與減少詞─極小詞兩種分歧現象。

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the polarity phenomenon of two lower-scale intensifiers in Chinese, ‘you(yi)dian(r)’ and ‘yidian(r)’, which are traditionally viewed as synonyms to English ‘a little’ and ‘a bit’. English lower-scale intensifiers ‘a little’ and ‘a bit’ have received much attention and previous analyses have shown that the former is a diminisher and a positive polarity item (PPI), while the latter is a minimizer and a negative polarity item (NPI). Despite a wealth of literature on English ‘a little’ and ‘a bit’, little attention has been paid to Chinese lower-scale intensifiers ‘you (yi)dian(r)’ and ‘yidian(r)’. First, ‘you(yi)dian(r)’ and ‘yidian(r)’ occur in different modifying positions. It is observed that in modifying gradable predicates, ‘you(yi)dian(r)’ stays in the pre-predicate modifying position while ‘(yi)dian(r)’ modifies them in post-predicative position. However, each of them exerts different modification force on the predicates, the construction of “‘you(yi)dian(r)’+(Pred.)” is involved in implicit comparison and that of “(Pred.)+ ‘yidian(r)’” is in explicit comparison, based on the theoretical accounts of Liu (2010) and Kennedy & McNally (2005). Second, the contrast of implicit and explicit comparison in DM ‘you(yi)dian(r)’ and MP ‘yidian(r)’ respectively provides us important clues to the diminisher and minimizer dichotomy. However, after adopting Giannakidou’s (1998) (non)veridicality approach, this paper argues that Chinese lower-scale intensifiers do not show the distinct dichotomies of PPI-NPI and diminisher-minimizer, since both are able to entail total negation meaning under the main negative marker ‘mei(you)’ with EVEN denotation, which is a typical NPI-minimizer property. Meanwhile, both can generate litotes reading (one form of metalinguistic negation) through the negative marker ‘bushi’ with 'shi' as a focus marker, and metalinguisitc negation happens to be a common PPI-diminisher feature.
In spite of this, this paper provides an initial study for Chinese lower-scale intensifiers ‘you(yi)dian(r)’ and ‘yidian(r)’, and conludes that their syntactic categories are degree modifier (‘you(yi)dian(r)’) and measure phrase (‘yidian(r)’), and the former is involved in implicit comparison while the latter is in explicit comparison in the semantic aspect. Still, the diminisher-minimizer and PPI-NPI statuses in Chinese lower-scale intensifiers ‘you(yi)dian(r)’ and ‘yidian(r)’ are not as distinct as those of Enlgish lower-scale intensifiers 'a little’ and ‘a bit’.

論文審定書 i
Acknowledgement ii
摘要 iii
Abstract v
List of Tables x
List of abbreiviations xi
Chapter 1 Introduction 1
1.1 Background and motivation 1
1.2 Purpose of the study 3
1.3 Thesis organization 4
Chapter 2 Literature Review 6
2.1 Introduction 6
2.2 Diminisher and minimizer 8
2.2.1 Similarities of the diminisher ‘a little’ and the minimizer ‘a bit’ 8
2.2.2 Differences between the diminisher ‘a little’ and the minimizer ‘a bit’ 11
2.3 Positive polarity items (PPI) and negative polarity items (NPI) 17
2.3.1 The licensing of NPI and PPI: Downward-entailment (DE) 18
2.3.2 Problems of DE licensing of ‘a little’ and ‘a bit’ 22
2.3.3 (Non)veridicality approach – Giannakidou (1998, 1999, 2002, 2011) 23
2.3.4 Other dichotomy approaches – Israel (1996), Progovac (1993, 1998) 40
2.4 Unified approaches – ‘a bit’ is both NPI and PPI 46
2.5 Summary 47
Chapter 3 Syntactic and semantic distinctions between ‘you(yi)dian(r)’ and ‘yidian(r)’ 48
3.1 Introduction 48
3.2 Syntactic distinctions 50
3.2.1 Pre-predicate modifier – Chinese DM ‘you(yi)dian(r)’ 50
3.2.2 Post-predicate modification of MP ‘yidian(r)’ 53
3.3 Semantic distinctions 59
3.3.1 Implicit comparison and explicit comparison 59
3.4 Degree modifier ‘you(yi)dian(r)’ and measure phrase ‘yidian(r)’ in negative ‘bu’ and ‘mei(you)’ constructions 74
3.4.1 The hierarchical positions of ‘mei(you)’ and ‘bu’ 75
3.4.2 Litotes reading v.s. total negation 79
3.4.3 ∃(existential)-NPI and ∪(univiersal)-NPI 84
3.4.4 Negative constructions in implicit and explicit comparison 88
3.4.5 Metalinguistic negation – ‘Bushi’ + ‘you(yi)dian(r)’ in gradable predicates 91
3.5 Conclusion 92
Chapter 4 The polarity phenomenon between Degree Modifier ‘you(yi)dian(r)’ and Measure Phrase ‘yidian(r)’ in Chinese 94
4.1 Introduction 94
4.2 Diminisher-minimizer dichotomy of Chinese DM ‘you(yi)dian(r)’ and MP ‘yidian(r)’ 95
4.2.1 Pre-predicate DM ‘you(yi)dian(r)’ and its diminisher properties 95
4.2.2 Post-predicate MP ‘yidian(r)’ and its minimizer properties 101
4.3 Chinese DM and MP – are they polarity items? 103
4.3.1 (Non)veridicality approach of NPI-PPI testing (Giannakidou 1998, 1999, 2001, 2011 vs. Ernst 2009) 103
4.3.2 Indirect licensing of PPI (Ernst 2009) 115
4.4 Summary – the distribution of DM ‘you(yi)dian(r)’ and MP ‘yidian(r)’ in noveridical environments 120
4.5 Conclusion 122
Chapter 5 Conclusion 124
5.1 Summary of results 124
5.2 Theoretical contribution 126
5.3 Suggestions for future study 127
References 128
Appendix I 136

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