ABSTRACT
In all those parts of this chapter which do not deal with the parametric use type of cái, jiù, dōu or yĕ, I present a lot of data that will not be made use of in subsequent chapters. It may seem out of place to devote so much space to the enumeration of things just in order to sort them out, but for two reasons I think the other use types must be mentioned in this study. The first reason has to do with the research tradition: many researchers dealing with cái, jiù, dōu or yĕ have defended the position that all use types of each element are manifestations of a univocal meaning. Although I do not agree with this position I think it would be misleading for readers who are unfamiliar with this tradition to fully detach my study from this line of research. The second reason has to do with the descriptive stance taken here: I think it better to include a “dictionary” of use types that may, independently of the main claims defended in later chapters, be used for future theory-building than to fully concentrate on the section of data that I need to state my claims. .
