A Case Study on Scalar Ordering Relations of Chinese Adverbs

The present study aimed to investigate whether the scalar structure of adverbs resembles scalar adjectives in respect to their ordering relations. Due to the fact that ordering relations in prior studies have often been examined in terms of differentiating antonyms of the same scalar dimension, investigating scalar implicatures, or probing the relations of scalar terms and modifiers, the present study intended to examine the ordering relations of Chinese adverbs of three dimensions (time/frequency/degree), based on responses collected from native speakers of Chinese. The results of the experiments indicated that, regarding the temporal adverbs, the ordering relation based on their semantic strengths from weakest to strongest was jiāngyào < kuàiyào < jiùyào (All three adverbs in Mandarin refer to the proximity and shortness of time, and can be literally translated as “almost” or “nearly” in English). The ordering relation of the target frequency adverbs based on semantic strength was ǒu’ěr (occasionally) < yǒushí (sometimes) < jīngcháng (often). Meanwhile, the ordering relation of degree adverbs was yǒudiǎn (a little) < hěn (quite) < shífēn (very). Moreover, the results of the experiment revealed that the semantic strength of the adverb with the highest strength in each dimension was significantly stronger than that of the target adverbs. Lastly, One-way ANOVA analysis detected no significant difference in the semantic strengths of the target adverbs between the three dimensions. Thus, the results of the present research supported the findings of previous related studies, and further provided more diverse and complete insights to the scalar structure of Chinese adverbs.