Many languages have particles that possess multiple logical functions. Take the Mandarin particle dou for example. Varying by the item it is associated with and the prosodic pattern of the environment it appears in, dou can trigger a distributivity effect, license a preverbal free choice item, or evoke an even-like inference. Considering universal grammar a simple system, we need to figure out, for a multi-functional particle, which of its functions is primary, what parametric variations are responsible for the alternations in function, and how these variations are conditioned. In this paper, I argue that the seemingly unrelated functions of dou share the same source: dou is a pre-exhaustification exhaustifier operating on sub-alternatives. Uniformly, dou affirms the truth of its propositional prejacent, negates the exhaustification of each sub-alternative, and presupposes a non-vacuity inference that there is at least one sub-alternative. Alternations in function result from minimal weakening operations on the semantics of sub-alternatives. In particular, sub-alternatives are primarily weaker alternatives, and the non-vacuity presupposition of dou yields a distributivity effect. When the semantics of sub-alternatives is weakened under particular syntactic or prosodic conditions, dou gains its other logical functions.

中文翻译：

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普通话“窦”的功能替代：发行人，自由选择许可人和“偶数”

许多语言的粒子具有多个逻辑功能。以普通话的“ dou”为例。根据与之关联的项目及其出现的环境的韵律模式的不同，dou可能会触发分配效应，许可前言自由选择项目或引发类似的推论。考虑到通用语法是一个简单的系统，对于一个多功能粒子，我们需要找出它的主要功能，哪些参数变化负责功能的变化以及如何调节这些变化。在本文中，我认为dou的看似无关的功能具有相同的来源：dou是在次替代品上运行的排气前排气装置。都一致地肯定了命题相邻的真相，否定了每个子替代方案的穷尽性，并假设存在至少一个子替代方案的非空性推断。功能上的变化是由对子替代词语义的最小化削弱操作导致的。特别是，次级替代方案主要是较弱的替代方案，并且dou的非空位预设会产生分布效应。当在特定的句法或韵律条件下弱化了副词的语义时，dou获得了其其他逻辑功能。dou的非真空预设产生分布效应。当在特定的句法或韵律条件下弱化了副词的语义时，dou获得了其其他逻辑功能。dou的非真空预设产生分布效应。当在特定的句法或韵律条件下弱化了副词的语义时，dou获得了其其他逻辑功能。