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Rhetorical Questions and Polarity Licensing: On Cantonese Modal Sai2

Tsun Hei Choi
Tsun Hei Choi
   | Feb 07, 2023
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Published Online: Feb 07, 2023
Page range: 123 - 142
Received: Jun 30, 2022
Accepted: Nov 04, 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/scl-2022-0005
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© 2022 Tsun Hei Choi, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

This paper investigates the deontic modal sai2 in Cantonese. I argue that sai2 is an NPI and a negative operator is induced at the sentence-initial position by the SFPs me1 or aa4 in rhetorical questions. In SAI sentence, sai2 must syntactically agree with the negative operator for licensing, and minimality and locality effects are found in such agreement. This study may provide evidence of a syntactic approach to NPI licensing and rhetorical questions.

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Journal Subjects:
Linguistics and Semiotics, Languages of Asia, Sino-Tibetan Languages, Chinese, Levels of Linguistic Analysis, Interfaces, Syntax, Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines, Contrastive Linguistics
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