Cover not available
Part of
Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Vietnamese Linguistics
Edited by Nigel Duffield, Trang Phan and Tue Trinh
[Studies in Language Companion Series 211] 2019
► pp. 181–212

Chapter 9
Scalar implicatures and the semantics of wh-indefinites in Vietnamese

| City University of Hong Kong
| Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz | Germany & Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam

In this chapter we attempt to account for the meaning of wh-indefinites in Vietnamese through a formal system of scalar implicatures and exhaustification (Chierchia, Fox & Spector 2012; Chierchia 2013). While Vietnamese wh-indefinites occur in a variety of licensing contexts, we conclude that the crucial condition is speaker ignorance, which can be derived compositionally from the interaction between a wh-indefinite, an exhaustification operator, and a speaker-oriented epistemic modal. We further discuss the interpretations of morphologically complex wh-indefinites and bare wh-indefinites in negative sentences and non-epistemic modal environments, and demonstrate how to derive their semantics uniformly. Our proposal presents an alternative to the syntactic analysis by Tran & Bruening (2013), which is critically reviewed.

Keywords: scalar implicature, modality, alternative semantics, indefinites, existential wh-phrases
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: Wh-indefinites in Vietnamese
    • 1.1Traditional NPI-licensing contexts
    • 1.2Epistemic modal contexts
    • 1.3Complement clauses of nonfactive predicates
    • 1.4In the scope of imperatives, certain non-epistemic modals and “non-realised” contexts
    • 1.5Complex/non-bare morphological forms
  • 2.Tran & Bruening (2013)
    • 2.1The proposal
    • 2.2Objections to T&B’s approach
  • 3.An implicature-based alternative account
    • 3.1Outlining the framework
    • 3.2A note on the null assertoric operator
  • 4.Types of modality and the role of classifiers
  • 5.Further issues: Complex wh-indefinites and the (wide) scope of wh-indefinites
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 9 October 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.211.09tsa
References
Alonso-Ovalle, Luis & Menéndez-Benito, Paula
2010 Modal indefinites. Natural Language Semantics 18(1): 1–31. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bisang, Walter & Quang, Kim Ngọc
to appear. Nominal anchoring: Specificity, definiteness, and article systems. In (In)definiteness and Vietnamese Classifiers, Kata Balogh, Anja Latrouite & Robert D. Van Valin, Jr. eds Oxford University Press
Chierchia, Gennaro
2013 Logic in Grammar: Polarity, Free Choice, and Intervention. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chierchia, Gennaro, Fox, Danny & Spector, Benjamin
2012 Scalar implicatures as a grammatical phenomenon. In Semantics: An International Handbook of Natural Language Meaning, Paul Portner, Claudia Maiernborn & Klaus von Heusinger (eds), 2297–2331. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Dayal, Veneeta
2004 The universal force of free choice any . Linguistic Variation Yearbook 4(1): 5–40. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Duffield, Nigel
2007 Aspects of Vietnamese clause structure: Separating tense from assertion. Linguistics 45(4): 765–814. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fălăuş, Anamaria
2014 (Partially) free choice of alternatives. Linguistics and Philosophy 37: 121–173. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fox, Danny
2007 Free choice and the theory of scalar implicatures. In Presupposition and Implicature in Compositional Semantics, Uli Sauerland & Penka Stateva (eds), 71–120. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hamblin, Charles L.
1973 Questions in Montague English. Foundations of Language 10(1): 41–53. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin
1997 Indefinite Pronouns. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Heim, Irene
1982 The Semantics of Definite and Indefinite Noun Phrases. PhD dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.Google Scholar
Huang, C-T. James
1982 Logical Relations in Chinese and the Theory of Grammar. PhD dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Kirby, James
2006 Vietnamese and the structure of NP. Ms, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Kratzer, Angelika
1981 The notional category of modality. In Words, Worlds, and Contexts: New Approaches in Word Semantics [Research in Tex Theory 6], Hans J. Eikmeyer & Hannes Rieser (eds), 38–74. Berlin: De Gryuter.Google Scholar
1986 Conditionals. In Papers from the Parasession on Pragmatics and Grammatical Theory: Twenty-second Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society, Anne M. Farley, Peter T. Farley & Karl-Erik McCollough (eds), 115–135. Chicago IL: CLS.Google Scholar
Kratzer, Angelika & Shimoyama, Junko
2002 Indeterminate pronouns: The view from Japanese. In Proceedings of the Third Tokyo Conference on Psycholinguistics, Yukio Otsu (ed.), 1–25. Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo.Google Scholar
Li, Yen-Hui Audrey
1992 Indefinite Wh in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 1: 125–155. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lin, Jo-Wang
1998 On existential polarity wh-phrases in Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 7(3): 219–255. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2004 Choice functions and scope of existential polarity wh-phrases. Linguistics and Philosophy 27(4): 451–491. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Meyer, Marie-Christine
2013 Ignorance and Grammar. PhD dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Michaelis, Laura A.
1989 The class of indefinites in Vietnamese. In Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics, Jong-Seok Ok & Mubeccel Taneri (eds), 57–80. Lawrence KS: Linguistics Graduate Student Association.Google Scholar
Nguyen, Kim Thản, Hồ, Hải Thuỵ, & Nguyễn, Đức Dương
(eds) 2005 Từ Điển Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese Dictionary). Sài Gòn: Văn hoá Sài Gòn.Google Scholar
Nguyen, Tuong Hung
2004 The Structure of the Vietnamese Noun Phrase. PhD dissertation, Boston University.Google Scholar
Reinhart, Tanya
1997 Quantifier scope: How labor is divided between QR and choice functions. Linguistics and Philosophy 20(4): 335–397. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sauerland, Uli
2004 Scalar implicatures in complex sentences. Linguistics and Philosophy 27(3): 367–391. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schwarzschild, Roger
2002 Singleton indefinites. Journal of Semantics 19(3): 289–314. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tran, Thuan
2009  Wh-quantification in Vietnamese. PhD dissertation, University of Delaware.Google Scholar
Tran, Thuan & Bruening, Benjamin
2013  Wh-phrases as indefinites: A Vietnamese perspective. In Linguistics of Vietnamese: An International Survey, Daniel Hole & Elisabeth Löbel (eds). Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Tsai, Cheng-Yu Edwin
2009  Wh-dependency in Vietnamese and the Syntax of Wh-in-situ. MA thesis, National Tsing Hua University.Google Scholar