On word order, binding relations, and plurality in Chinese Noun Phrases
On word order, binding relations, and plurality in Chinese Noun Phrases

Summary/Abstract: We provide a semantic account of the free ordering of NP-internal elements in Chinese and argue that this provides evidence for the lack of DP in Chinese. We also extend this account to the Mandarin plural marker -men, tying the defi niteness of -men phrases and its number/definiteness interaction to the classifier status of -men and the lack of DP in Chinese. We show that the binding properties of Chinese possessors also provide evidence for the no-DP analysis of Chinese. Finally, we propose a semantic account of certain differences in the order of NP-internal elements between Chinese and Serbo-Croatian, another language that lacks DP.

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