ABSTRACT
Although the various quantificational powers of Chinese wh-elements are not marked by distinct morphological variants, they do behave differently. This chapter focuses on the distinction between renhe and wh-polarity items and argues that this contrast shows clearly that universal FCIs and existential NPIs behave differently under negation, and this difference in behavior perfectly captures why universal renhe is valid when accompanied by a necessity operator, while existential shenme is not since human necessity is weaker than universal quantification over the entire set of possible worlds. Also, I propose to apply the theory of (non-)D-linking to capture the distinction between na-CL and shenme in Mandarin when used as polarity items.
