An Overt Operator Associating with Covert Focus: An Even-Like Semantics for Mandarin Gèng

This work proposes a novel, unified even-like semantics for Mandarin gèng. Gèng, literally even more, is mostly studied regarding its combination with gradable adjectives, where it triggers a comparison with an evaluative inference in the sense of [39]. To capture this effect, gèng is argued by [32] a.o. to be a comparative marker with an evaluative presupposition. Intriguingly, [32] observes in passing that gèng can also combine with non-gradable predicates, which remains understudied. We examine [32]’s observation in detail and propose that gèng is an even-like particle à la [15]’s semantics for English even. This straightforwardly captures gèng’s combination with non-gradable predicates. Then, by adopting two independently motivated assumptions, i.e. (a) the existence of a covert comparative marker comp in Mandarin and (b) association with covert focus, our proposal is naturally extended to gèng’s combination with gradable adjectives. At last, gèng and shènzhì, Mandarin unmarked even, are compared from a parametric variation perspective.