ABSTRACT
The adjectives mǎn (满, ‘full’) and quán (全, ‘whole’) are frequently used to modify nouns, giving rise to the subordinate constructions ‘mǎn + NP’ and ‘quán + NP’. For example,
(1) a. mǎn shēn shì hàn 满 身 是 汗 full body is sweat ‘the body is full of sweat’
←→ quán shēn shì hàn 全 身 是 汗 whole body is sweat ‘the whole body is covered with sweat’
b. mǎn shāngchǎng de rén 满 商场 的 人 full market DE people ‘a supermarket full of people’
←→ quán shāngchǎng de rén 全 商场 的 人 whole market DE people
‘a whole supermarket of people’
In (1a), mǎn (满, ‘full’) and quán (全, ‘whole’) combine with shēn (身, ‘body’) into mǎn shēn (满身, ‘full body’) and quán shēn (全身, ‘whole body’), which means that the sweat covers the body thoroughly. In (1b), mǎn (满, ‘full’) and quán (全, ‘whole’) are combined with shāngchǎng (商场, ‘supermarket’) into mǎn shāngchǎng (满商场, ‘full supermarket’) and quán shāngchǎng (全商场, ‘whole supermarket’), which means that a supermarket is densely crowded. However, it should be noted that mǎn (满, ‘full’) and quán (全, ‘whole’) may or may not be used exchangeably. For example,
In (1) and (3), mǎn (满, ‘full’) and quán (全, ‘whole’) are equivalent. In contrast, in (2), they are not exchangeable. Apparently, there are differences between the two adjectives and hence differences between the two constructions ‘mǎn + NP’ and ‘quán + NP’. Chu (1996) makes a detailed examination and draws a conclusion that both constructions at issue may express the range and the quantity of an object. However, ‘mǎn + NP’ mainly refers to the quantity within a range; the quantity is central and the range is peripheral. In contrast, ‘quán + NP’ directly generalises the range of an object, namely, the range is stressed. Consider the examples below:
According to Chu, in (4), mǎn wūzi (满屋子, ‘a full house’) first indicates the quantity of shū (书, ‘book’); the range of wūzi (屋子, ‘house’) is in turn described by the space which shū (书, ‘book’) occupies. That is to say, in ‘mǎn + N + de + X’, ‘X’ is needed to indicate the range of ‘mǎn + N’, so the range is indirect. In (5), there is no need for quán (全, ‘whole’) to combine with another constituent, i.e., it directly defines the range of gōngsī (公司, ‘company’).
