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The function of DE in Chinese RCs

De in Chinese relative clauses is commonly analyzed as a complementizer signifying a relative clause. In this paper we argue that De has two roles in RCs. Besides being a relativization marker, which is its basic function, De can also mark the realis state of the event expressed by the RC. Being a realis state marker, De needs to bind an event variable, which can be supplied by the VP in the RC. When some other operator in RCs competes with De for such an event variable, the variable will first go into that operator’s interpretation and De thus fails to bind an event variable. In such a case, the RC cannot express a realis event unless Le or Guo occurs.


Introduction
In Chinese, relative clauses cannot be connected with their head NP without De, as exemplified by (1).
The nature of De has been fully discussed in recent literature ( [6], among others). Usually we treat De as a complimentizer signifying a relative clause, which is its basic function. One phenomenon concerning RCs which has not been discussed is that when the event expressed in the RC is a past one, the verb needs no perfective particles or time adverbs that should be used in main clauses to denote past events, as (2) and (3) show.
(1) * ( ) (2) this is I in Beijing buy (De) skirt I eat Le mantou 'This is the skirt that I bought in Beijing.' 'I ate some mantou'

De as a realis state marker in RCs
The function of De in RCs reminds us of its function in emphatic sentences like ' ' ('It is yesterday that he went to Beijing'). De's function in emphatic sentences has been fully discussed in literature ( [7], [9], among others). We agree on one prevailing viewpoint that De in emphatic sentences is a tense-aspect particle (cf. [7]), and in this paper we hold that De in RCs can mark the realis state of a event and such a function can be unified with De's function in emphatic sentences.

The (ir)realis look of the event in RCs
We

The semantic translation of De in RCs 1
Given that De marks realis state of the event in RCs, De can be treated as an event variable binder. After De's binding, the event variable gets its value and becomes a realis event. The semantic translation of De in (9a), for example, can thus be described as (9b). Kratzer [2] argues that individual-level and stage-level predicates differ in argument structure, insofar as that stage-level predicates have an extra Davidsonian argument for space-time location, and individual-level predicates lack such an argument. In this paper we use 'e' variable in De's semantic representation whether the VP is a stage-level one or an individual-level one. That means both stage-level predicates and individual-level predicates can provide an event variable for De to bind, which is different from the viewpoint in Kratzer [2]. Although individual-level predicates lack typical time features like having taken place or progressing, they do have the realis state which contrasts with the irrealis state of future events or events in possible world. Hence, we think they can supply a 'e' variable for De to bind and get the value of 'realis'.

The semantic functions of adverb Dou, Zong, Hai and Zhi
Dou, Zong, Hai and Zhi are all strong semantic operators that have special effects on the interpretation of the sentence. Of these four, Dou and Zong are usually treated as A-quantifiers [4] and Hai and Zhi focus operators (Xu [8] mentions Zhi as a focus operator. We think Hai is also a focus operator.). Dou's semantics has been fully discussed in recent literature. According to Huang [1], Dou takes event variable as its argument and sums them into a plural event and Dou is at the same time the lexical licensor of the event variable for universal quantification. In Pan [3], Zong is patterned with 'always' and is treated as an adverb quantifier which quantifies over an event variable. Hai and Zhi are focus operators whose scope is the VP they modify. As a focus operator, they will bind a variable that can substitutes for the focused element. Usually we take the stressed element in their scope as their semantic focus (cf. Xu [8] for 'semantic focus') and the variable they bind is a 'x' that can substitute for this stressed part. We can also, on the other hand, take the whole VP as their semantic focus for the VP is the maximal projection of any stressed part inside the VP. According to Pan [3], Zong binds the event variable supplied by the VP and assigns it a universal reading, and thus there is no free event variable for De to bind. Hence, we failed to get the realis reading for the event.