The Licensing Condition on Dou-Quantificationin Mandarin Chinese

Abstract

This paper presents a syntactic licensing condition in terms of dou-quantification in Mandarin Chinese. The licensing condition is generalized as follows: dou-quantification of α is possible iff the chain <αi, dou_i, e_i> is formed, in which α binds dou and dou binds the θ position of α. That is, a dou-quantified constituent α must c-command dou and dou must c-command the vP internal position of α in the structure. This study confirms the significance of θ position and shows that dou-quantification can only be licensed in the proper configuration of the licensor dou, dou-quantified element, and its θ position.