Optional gai in Hakka adjectival modification: Its interpretation and structure

This paper investigates the associative marker gai in Hakka complex noun phrases, exploring its syntax and semantics. It is argued that gai constitutes the formal correlate of a [CLASS] feature that linguistically identifies a class, or a subkind, to a kind denoted by the modified noun. The gai marker hosts a functional projection ClassP in the nominal structure and is shown to encode the concept of partitivity, namely denoting a potentially specific subset of a larger set. The analysis of gai as a class marker is shown to fit with the cross-linguistic picture regarding classification, partitivity and nominal ellipsis. 摘要: 本文研究了客家复杂名词短语中的链接标记"个"，探讨其语法和语 义。本文认为"个"构成了[CLASS]特征的形式关联，该特征在语言上 用来标示被修饰名词所指涉之类别下的次类别或子类别。此"个"标 记在名词组结构中位于功能词组ClassP，并表达部分性之语义概念， 即用来指示较大集合中的殊指子集。本文更进一步指出此分析法符合 有关分类、部分性和名词组删略等现象之跨语言视野。