Linearity as a Scope Principle for Chinese

In the linguistics and philosophy literature, it has long been observed that a salient property of quantifier noun phrases (QNP) such as a babysitter, two strings, every child lies in their ability to exhibit relative scope (cf. e.g., Keenan, 1971, Lakoff, 1971, Quine, 1960). ¹ This can be illustrated by the English sentence (1), which contains two QNPs—a babysitter and every child. Depending on which QNP falls within the scope of the other, (1) can have two interpretations, given in (2a) and (2b).

A babysitter looks after every child.

There is a x = babysitter such that for all y = child, x looks after y.

For all y = child, there is a x = babysitter such that x looks after y.