Cover not available

Article published In: Language and Linguistics: Online-First Articles

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB

Epistemic indefinites in Cantonese

A case study of m-zi ‘not-know’

ORCiD logo with link | City University of Hong Kong
Open Access logo
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 22 October 2026
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/lali.00271.lee
Abstract
A recent line of research concerns how an existential claim is bundled with a modal component — in particular, one relating to speakers’ ignorance — in the nominal domain. The primary focus of this paper is to discuss a case of epistemic indefinites in Cantonese which takes the form of m-zi-WH ‘not-know-WH’. I argue for two claims in this paper. First, I propose that mzi is an (overt) choice function operator that binds wh-expressions and disjunctive expressions. Second, I suggest that the ignorance component associated with mzi is a conventional implicature, representing a new type of the ignorance component for epistemic indefinites. I also discuss a potential grammaticalization path of m-zi, connecting its syntactic distribution to its semantic properties. The findings in this paper uncover a new breed of epistemic indefinites and contributes to our understanding of both the interpretation of wh-expressions in Cantonese and the study of how natural languages encode an ignorance component in nominal expressions.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.A choice functional analysis of mzi
    • 2.1The non-verbal use of mzi
      • 2.1.1Differentiating the verbal m-zi from the non-verbal mzi
      • 2.1.2Not syntactic amalgams
    • 2.2Arguments for a choice-functional analysis of mzi
      • 2.2.1Mzi and expressions invoking sets of alternatives for evaluation
      • 2.2.2Competitions with other wh-binders
      • 2.2.3Indefiniteness and scope behaviors of the mzi+wh string
  • 3.The ignorance component as a conventional implicature
    • 3.1The ignorance component
    • 3.2Escaping intensional scope
    • 3.3Not a conversational implicature
    • 3.4Conventional implicature
  • 4.A compositional analysis
    • 4.1Assumptions
    • 4.2Proposal and implementation
      • 4.2.1Mzi as a choice function variable and a CI trigger
      • 4.2.2The apparent narrow scope and parameterized choice functions
    • 4.3Distributed ignorance
      • 4.3.1A complication
      • 4.3.2Towards a solution
  • 5.Notes on the grammaticalization of mzi
    • 5.1Different usages of the string m-zi
    • 5.2Morphological fusion of verbs and wh-expressions
    • 5.3On the source of the ignorance component
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • List of abbreviations
  • References
References (79)
References
Aloni, Maria. 2001. Quantification under conceptual covers. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam. (Doctoral dissertation.)
. 2007. Free choice, modals, and imperatives. Natural Language Semantics 15(1). 65–94. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aloni, Maria & Port, Angelika. 2015. Epistemic indefinites and methods of identification. In Alonso-Ovalle, Luis & Menéndez-Benito, Paula (eds.), Epistemic indefinites: Exploring modality beyond the verbal domain, 117–140. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Alonso-Ovalle, Luis. 2006. Disjunction in alternative semantics. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Amherst. (Doctoral dissertation.)
Alonso-Ovalle, Luis & Menéndez-Benito, Paula. 2003. Some epistemic indefinites. In Kadowaki, Makoto & Kawahara, Shigeto (eds.), NELS 33: Proceedings of the Thirty-Third Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society, 1–12. Amherst: GLSA.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. Modal indefinites. Natural Language Semantics 18(1). 1–31. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. Two views on epistemic indefinites. Language and Linguistics Compass 7(2). 105–122. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. Epistemic indefinites: Exploring modality beyond the verbal domain. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Alonso-Ovalle, Luis & Shimoyama, Junko. 2014. Expressing ignorance in the nominal domain: Japanese Wh-ka. In Santana-LaBarge, Robert E. (ed.), WCCFL 31: Proceedings of the 31st West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, 11–20. Somerville: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Amaral, Patricia & Roberts, Craige & Smith, E. Allyn. 2007. Review of The logic of conventional implicatures by Chris Potts. Linguistics and Philosophy 30(6). 707–749. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anderbois, Scott & Brasoveanu, Adrian & Henderson, Robert. 2015. At-issue proposals and appositive impositions in discourse. Journal of Semantics 32(1). 93–138. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beck, Sigrid. 2006. Intervention effects follow from focus interpretation. Natural Language Semantics 14(1). 1–56. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cable, Seth. 2010. The grammar of Q: Q-particles, wh-movement, and pied-piping. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Charlow, Simon. 2020. The scope of alternatives: Indefiniteness and islands. Linguistics and Philosophy 43(4). 427–472. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chen, Sihwei & Hohaus, Vera & Laturnus, Rebecca & Louie, Meagan & Matthewson, Lisa & Rullmann, Hotze & Simchen, Ori & Turner, Claire K. & Vander Klok, Jozina. 2017. Past possibility cross-linguistically: Evidence from twelve languages. In Arregui, Ana & Rivero, María Luisa & Salanova, Andrés (eds.), Modality across syntactic categories, 235–287. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cheung, Lawrence Yam-Leung. 2015. Uttering the unutterable with wh- placeholders. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 24(3). 271–308. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chierchia, Gennaro. 2004. A semantics for unaccusatives and its syntactic consequences. In Alexiadou, Artemis & Anagnostopoulou, Elena & Everaert, Martin (eds.), The unaccusativity puzzle: Explorations of the syntax-lexicon interface, 22–59. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. Logic in grammar: Polarity, free choice, and intervention. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chierchia, Gennaro & Liao, Hsiu-Chen Daphne. 2015. Where do Chinese wh-items fit? In Alonso-Ovalle, Luis & Menéndez-Benito, Paula (eds.), Epistemic indefinites: Exploring modality beyond the verbal domain, 31–59. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dawson, Virginia. 2018. A new kind of epistemic indefinite. Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 22(1). 349–366. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2022. Outscoping the directive force of imperatives. Linguistic Inquiry 53(1). 155–167. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Endriss, Cornelia. 2009. Quantificational topics: A scopal treatment of exceptional wide scope phenomena. Dordrecht: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Erlewine, Michael Yoshitaka. 2017. Why the null complementizer is special in complementizer-trace effects. In Halpert, Claire & Kotek, Hadas & van Urk, Coppe (eds.), A pesky set: Papers for David Pesetsky, 371–380. Cambridge: MIT Working Papers in Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Farkas, Donka F. 1995. Specificity and scope. In Nash, Léa & Tsoulas, Georges (eds.), Actes du Premier Colloque Langues & Grammaire, 119–137. Paris: Université de Paris 8.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fodor, Janet Dean & Sag, Ivan A. 1982. Referential and quantificational indefinites. Linguistics and Philosophy 5(3). 355–398. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gazdar, Gerald. 1979. Pragmatics: Implicature, presupposition, and logical form. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Geist, Ljudmila. 2008. Specificity as referential anchoring: Evidence from Russian. Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 12. 151–164. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Geurts, Bart. 2000. Indefinites and choice functions. Linguistic Inquiry 31(4). 731–738. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Giannakidou, Anastasia & Quer, Josep. 2013. Exhaustive and non-exhaustive variation with free choice and referential vagueness: Evidence from Greek, Catalan, and Spanish. Lingua 126. 120–149. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grice, H. P. 1975. Logic and conversation. In Cole, Peter & Morgan, Jerry L. (eds.), Syntax and semantics, volume 3: Speech arts, 41–58. New York: Academic Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hamblin, Charles L. 1973. Questions in Montague English. Foundations of Language 10(1). 41–53.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin. 1997. Indefinite pronouns. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heim, Irene & Kratzer, Angelika. 1998. Semantics in generative grammar. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hopper, Paul J. 1991. On some principles of grammaticalization. In Traugott, Elizabeth Closs & Heine, Bernd (eds.), Approaches to grammaticalization, volume 1: Theoretical and methodological issues, 17–36. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Horn, Laurence R. 1972. On the semantic properties of logical operators in English. Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles. (Doctoral dissertation.)
2001. A natural history of negation. Stanford: CSLI.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huang, C.-T. James. 1987. Existential sentences in Chinese and (in)definiteness. In Reuland, Eric J. & ter Meulen, Alice G. B. (eds.), The representation of (in)definiteness, 226–253. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huang, Rui-heng Ray. 2010. Disjunction, coordination, and question: A comparative study. Taipei: National Taiwan Normal University. (Doctoral dissertation.)
Jayez, Jacques & Tovena, Lucia M. 2006. Epistemic determiners. Journal of Semantics 23(3). 217–250. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johnson, Kyle. 2013. Licensing ellipsis. Studies in Chinese Linguistics 34(2). 72–97.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Karttunen, Lauri & Peters, Stanley. 1979. Conventional implicature. In Oh, Choon-Kyu & Dinneen, David A. (eds.), Syntax and semantics, volume 11: Presupposition, 1–56. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kim, Ji-yung. 2003. “Intermediate scope” in (Mandarin) Chinese. In Young, Robert B. & Zhou, Yuping (eds.), Proceedings of the 13th Semantics and Linguistic Theory Conference (SALT XIII), 162–179. Ithaca: CLC Publications. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kishimoto, Hideki. 2005. Wh-in-situ and movement in Sinhala questions. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 23(1). 1–51. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kratzer, Angelika. 1998. Scope or pseudoscope? Are there wide-scope indefinites? In Rothstein, Susan (ed.), Events and grammar, 163–196. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kratzer, Angelika & Shimoyama, Junko. 2002. Indeterminate pronouns: The view from Japanese. In Otsu, Yukio (ed.), The Proceedings of the Third Tokyo Conference on Psycholinguistics, 1–25. Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, George. 1974. Syntactic amalgams. In La Galy, Michael W. & Fox, Robert A. & Bruck, Anthony (eds.), CLS 10-1: Papers from the 10th Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, 321–344. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lee, Tommy Tsz-Ming & Wong, Hok-Yuen. 2018. Epistemic indefinites and reportative indefinites in Cantonese. In Politzer-Ahles, Stephen & Hsu, Yu-Yin & Huang, Chu-Ren & Yao, Yao (eds.), Proceedings of the 32nd Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computation (PACLIC-32), 339–347. Hong Kong: Association for Computational Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lee, Tommy Tsz-Ming & Yip, Ka-Fai. 2021. Raising, phase unlocked. In Soo, Rachel & Chow, Una Y. & Nederveen, Sander (eds.), Proceedings of the 38th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, 274–282. Somerville: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2024. Hyperraising, evidentiality, and phase deactivation. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 42(4). 1527–1578. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li, Yen-Hui Audrey. 1992. Indefinite Wh in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 1(2). 125–155. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lin, Jo-wang. 1998. On existential polarity wh-phrases in Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 7(3). 219–255. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liu, Mingming. 2021. A pragmatic explanation of the mei-dou co-occurrence in Mandarin. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 30(3). 277–316. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liu, Mingming & Cui, Yanyan. 2019. Situating Mandarin wh-indefinites in the typology of modal indefinites. Waiguoyu 42(3). 26–37.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matthewson, Lisa. 1999. On the interpretation of wide-scope indefinites. Natural Language Semantics 7(1). 79–134. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McCawley, James D. 1978. Conversational implicature and the lexicon. In Cole, Peter (ed.), Syntax and semantics, volume 9: Pragmatics, 245–259. New York: Academic Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ott, Dennis. 2016. Ellipsis in appositives. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics 1(1). 1–46. (Article 34.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pesetsky, David. 1987. Wh-in-situ: Movement and unselective binding. In Reuland, Eric J. & ter Meulen, Alice G. B. (eds.), The representation of (in)definiteness, 98–129. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Potts, Christopher. 2005. The logic of conventional implicatures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2007. The expressive dimension. Theoretical Linguistics 33(2). 165–198. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reinhart, Tanya. 1997. Quantifier scope: How labor is divided between QR and choice functions. Linguistics and Philosophy 20(4). 335–397. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1998. Wh-in-situ in the framework of the minimalist program. Natural Language Semantics 6(1). 29–56. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rooth, Mats Edward. 1985. Association with focus. Amherst: University of Massachusetts, Amherst. (Doctoral dissertation.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruys, E. G. 1992. The scope of indefinites. Utrecht: Utrecht University. (Doctoral dissertation.)
Sadock, Jerrold M. 1978. On testing for conversational implicature. In Cole, Peter (ed.), Syntax and semantics 9: Pragmatics, 281–297. New York: Academic Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Safir, Kenneth. 1982. Syntactic chains and the definiteness effect. Cambridge: MIT. (Doctoral dissertation.)
Schlenker, Philippe. 2010. Supplements within a unidimensional semantics I: Scope. In Aloni, Maria & Bastiaanse, Harald & de Jager, Tikitu & Schulz, Katrin (eds.), Logic, language and meaning: 17th Amsterdam colloquium, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, December 16–18, 2009, revised selected papers, 74–83. Berlin: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. Supplements within a unidimensional semantics II: Epistemic status and projection. In Kan, Seda & Moore-Cantwell, Claire & Staubs, Robert (eds.), NELS 40: Proceedings of the Fortieth Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society, vol. 2, 167–182. Amherst: GLSA.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2023. Supplements without bidimensionalism. Linguistic Inquiry 54(2). 251–297. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shanon, Benny. 1976. Semantic and syntactic features in the context of dreams. Linguistic Inquiry 7(3). 518–519.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shimoyama, Junko. 2006. Indeterminate phrase quantification in Japanese. Natural Language Semantics 14(2). 139–173. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Šimík, Radek. 2014. Epistemic indefinites under epistemic modals in Czech. In Zybatow, Gerhild & Biskup, Petr & Guhl, Marcel & Hurtig, Claudia & Mueller-Reichau, Olav & Yastrebova, Maria (eds.), Slavic grammar from a formal perspective: The 10th anniversary FDSL Conference, Leipzig 2013, 425–442. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Simons, Mandy. 2005. Semantics and pragmatics in the interpretation of or. In Georgala, Effi & Howell, Jonathan (eds.), Proceedings of the 15th Semantics and Linguistic Theory Conference (SALT XV), 205–222. Ithaca: CLC Publications. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Slade, Benjamin. 2015. Sinhala epistemic indefinites with a certain je ne sais quoi. In Alonso-Ovalle, Luis & Menéndez-Benito, Paula (eds.), Epistemic indefinites: Exploring modality beyond the verbal domain, 82–99. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Strawson, P. F. 1974. Subject and predicate in logic and grammar. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sudo, Yasutada. 2010. Wh-ka pronouns in Japanese and the semantics of indeterminate pronouns. (Handout distributed at the Workshop on Epistemic Indefinites, University of Göttingen, 11 June 2010.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
von Fintel, Kai. 2004. Would you believe it? The King of France is back! (Presuppositions and truth-value intuitions). In Reimer, Marga & Bezuidenhout, Anne (eds.), Descriptions and beyond, 315–341. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Winter, Yoad. 1997. Choice functions and the scopal semantics of indefinites. Linguistics and Philosophy 20(4). 399–467. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wong, Hok Yuen. 2018. Wh-doublets in Cantonese. Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong. (Master’s thesis.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yap, Foong Ha & Chor, Winnie. 2014. Epistemic, evidential and attitudinal markers in clause-medial position in Cantonese. In Leiss, Elisabeth & Abraham, Werner (eds.), Modes of modality: Modality, typology, and universal grammar, 219–260. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold-dark jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold-light jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold prag Twitter_Logo_Blue