Although tone plays an important role in Chinese speech perception, many issues regarding tone processing remained debatable. Among these issues, whether tone and segment are integrally or independently processed is the one that motivated this study. To investigate the integration vs. independence view of tone and segment (i.e., rime in this study) processing during Mandarin sentence comprehension, the present experiment adopted the violation paradigm and event- related potential (ERP) recording. Participants heard a series of sentences and judged whether each sentence made sense or not after its offset. The sentences included congruous sentences that embodied the original word (e.g., "观众"/guan1-zhong4/; "audience") and incongruous sentences that were created by mismatching tone (e.g., "观肿"/guan1-zhong3/), rime (e.g., " 观赚"/guan1-zhuan4/) or tone-plus-rime (e.g., "观转"/guan1-zhuan3/) of the second syllable of the original words in the congruous sentences. Larger N400 (250-400 ms) and P600 (500-700 ms) were evoked by the incongruous sentences than congruous sentences. Among the incongruous sentences, the N400 elicited by double violation (i.e., tone-plus-rime violation) was larger than rime violation, which was in turn larger than tone violation. The P600 evoked by tone violation was larger than rime violation in 500-600 ms, but they were comparable in 600-700 ms. In addition, the P600 evoked by tone and rime violation were both larger than double violation. The different ERP effects among the three violation conditions supported the independence view of tone and rime processing. Based on the results, a dynamic model of spoken word processing was proposed, in which the functional dissociation of tone and segment across different stages was taken into consideration.

No description available.

Cette thèse a pour objectif d’étudier le fonctionnement des catégories de temps, aspect et mode (TAM) et l’interaction de ces trois catégories dans des phrases complexes en mandarin moderne à partir d’un corpus tiré principalement d’énoncés authentiques (oral et écrit). A travers cette étude nous cherchons à répondre à trois questions liées à l’interprétation de la temporalité en mandarin : (i) Comment les catégories temporelles, aspectuelles et modales se manifestent et interagissent dans des phrases complexes ? ; (ii) Quelles sont les différences entre les interactions du TAM dans la phrase complexe et celles dans la phrase simple ? ; (iii) Comment est exprimé l’ordre séquentiel en mandarin ? La théorie temporelle de Comrie (1985) et le modèle aspectuel élaboré par Tournadre (2004) sont utilisés comme cadre théorique de cette étude. Dans la première partie, nous présentons les théories du TAM utilisées en linguistique générale et introduisons les notions fondamentales que nous allons utiliser dans la thèse. Puis nous abordons les moyens linguistiques employés en mandarin pour véhiculer des valeurs temporelles, aspectuelles et modales, ainsi que le fonctionnement de ces trois catégories dans la phrase simple afin de comparer ce fonctionnement avec celui dans la phrase complexe. La seconde partie consiste à analyser l’interaction du TAM dans divers types de phrases complexes, comprenant des phrases subordonnées ou des constructions verbale en série. / This dissertation is a corpus-based study of the tense, aspect and mood (TAM) and the interaction between these three categories in complex sentences in modern Mandarin Chinese. It aims to answer three questions related to the interpretation of temporality in Mandarin: (i) How temporal, aspectual and modal categories are marked and how they interact in complex sentences? ; (ii) What are the differences between the interactions of TAM in complex sentences and those in simple sentences? ; (iii) How is temporal sequence expressed in Mandarin? The temporal theory of Comrie (1985) and the aspectual model developed by Tournadre (2004) will be used as the theoretical framework to analyze the data. In the first part, we first introduce the concepts and theories of TAM used in general linguistics. Then we discuss the linguistic means used in Mandarin to convey temporal, aspectual and modal concepts, and the functioning of these three categories in simple sentences in order to compare it with the functioning in complex sentences. The second part is devoted to the analysis the interaction of TAM categories in various types of complex sentences which include those in subordinate clauses and verbal construction in series.

by Choy Chi Yan. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-115). / Text in English; abstract also in Chinese. / by Choy Chi Yan. / ABSTRACT --- p.I / ACKNOWLEDGMENTS --- p.III / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.IV / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.VII / LIST OF TABLES --- p.VIII / Chapter 1. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Speech Recognition --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Development of Speech Recognisers --- p.4 / Chapter 1.3 --- Speech Recognition for Chinese Language --- p.5 / Chapter 1.4 --- Objectives of the thesis --- p.6 / Chapter 1.5 --- Thesis Structure --- p.7 / Chapter 2. --- PHONOLOGICAL AND ACOUSTICAL PROPERTIES OF MANDARIN CHINESE --- p.9 / Chapter 2.1 --- Characteristics of Mandarin Chinese --- p.9 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Syllabic Structures --- p.10 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Lexical Tones --- p.11 / Chapter 2.2 --- Basic Phonetic Units for Mandarin Chinese --- p.14 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Tonal Syllables and Base Syllables --- p.14 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Initial-Finals --- p.14 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Phones --- p.16 / Chapter 2.2.4 --- Preme-Core-Finals and Preme-Tonemes --- p.17 / Chapter 2.2.5 --- Summary-The phonological hierarchy of Mandarin Syllables --- p.19 / Chapter 3. --- HIDDEN MARKOV MODELS --- p.20 / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.20 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Speech Data --- p.20 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Fundamental of HMMs --- p.21 / Chapter 3.2 --- Using Hidden Markov Models for Speech Recognition --- p.22 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Likelihood of the state sequence of speech observations --- p.22 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- The Recognition Problem --- p.24 / Chapter 3.3 --- Output Probability Distributions --- p.25 / Chapter 3.4 --- Model Training --- p.26 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- State Sequence Estimation --- p.26 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- Gaussian Mixture Models --- p.29 / Chapter 3.4.3 --- Parameter Estimation --- p.30 / Chapter 3.5 --- Speech Recognition and Viterbi Decoding --- p.31 / Chapter 3.6 --- Summary --- p.32 / Chapter 4. --- LARGE VOCABULARY CONTINUOUS SPEECH RECOGNITION FOR MANDARIN CHINESE --- p.33 / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.33 / Chapter 4.2 --- Large Vocabulary Mandarin Chinese Recognition System --- p.34 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Overall Architecture for the Speech Recogniser --- p.34 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Signal Representation and Features --- p.36 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Subword Unit Models Based on HMMs --- p.39 / Chapter 4.2.4 --- Training of Subword Units --- p.42 / Chapter 4.2.5 --- Language Model (LM) --- p.43 / Chapter 4.2.6 --- "Transcriptions, Word Networks and Dictionaries for LVCSR System" --- p.44 / Chapter 4.2.7 --- Viterbi Decoding --- p.47 / Chapter 4.2.8 --- Performance Analysis --- p.48 / Chapter 4.3 --- Experiments --- p.48 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Tasks --- p.48 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Speech Database --- p.49 / Chapter 4.3.3 --- Baseline Experimental Results --- p.51 / Chapter 4.4 --- Context Dependency in Speech --- p.52 / Chapter 4.4.1 --- Introduction --- p.52 / Chapter 4.4.2 --- Context Dependent Phonetic Models --- p.53 / Chapter 4.4.3 --- Word Boundaries and Word network for context-dependent HMMs --- p.54 / Chapter 4.4.4 --- Recognition Results Using Cross-Syllable Context-Dependent Units --- p.56 / Chapter 4.5 --- Tree-Based Clustering --- p.58 / Chapter 4.5.1 --- Introduction --- p.58 / Chapter 4.5.2 --- Decision Tree Based Clustering --- p.59 / Chapter 4.5.3 --- The Question Sets --- p.61 / Chapter 4.5.4 --- Convergence Condition --- p.61 / Chapter 4.4.5 --- The Final Results --- p.63 / Chapter 4.6 --- Conclusions --- p.65 / Chapter 5. --- APPLICATION1 ISOLATED WORD RECOGNITION FOR MANDARIN CHINESE --- p.67 / Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction --- p.67 / Chapter 5.2 --- Isolated Word Recogniser --- p.68 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- System Description --- p.68 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Experimental Results --- p.70 / Chapter 5.3 --- Discussions and Conclusions --- p.71 / Chapter 6. --- APPLICATION2 SUBWORD UNITS FOR A MANDARIN KEYWORD SPOTTING SYSTEM --- p.74 / Chapter 6.1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.74 / Chapter 6.2 --- RECOGNITION SYSTEM DESCRIPTION --- p.75 / Chapter 6.2.1 --- Overall Architecture and Recognition Network for the keyword Spotters --- p.75 / Chapter 6.2.2 --- Signal Representation and Features --- p.76 / Chapter 6.2.3 --- Keyword Models --- p.76 / Chapter 6.2.4 --- Filler Models --- p.77 / Chapter 6.2.5 --- Language Modeling and Search --- p.78 / Chapter 6.3 --- EXPERIMENTS --- p.78 / Chapter 6.3.1 --- Tasks --- p.78 / Chapter 6.3.2 --- Speech Database --- p.79 / Chapter 6.3.3 --- Performance Measures --- p.80 / Chapter 6.3.4 --- Details of Different Word-spotters --- p.80 / Chapter 6.3.5 --- General Filler Models --- p.81 / Chapter 6.4 --- EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS --- p.83 / Chapter 6.5 --- CONCLUSIONS --- p.84 / Chapter 7. --- CONCLUSIONS --- p.87 / Chapter 7.1 --- Review of the Work --- p.87 / Chapter 7.1.1 --- Large Vocabulary Continuous Speech Recognition for Mandarin Chinese --- p.87 / Chapter 7.1.2 --- Isolated Word Recognition for a Stock Inquiry Application --- p.88 / Chapter 7.1.3 --- Keyword Spotting for Mandarin Chinese --- p.89 / Chapter 7.2 --- Suggestions for Further Work --- p.89 / Chapter 7.3 --- Conclusion --- p.91 / APPENDIX --- p.92 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.111

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Speech and Hearing Sciences / Master / Master of Science in Audiology

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Linguistics / Master / Master of Philosophy

Thesis (MSc (Horticulture))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / Rind breakdown of ‘Nules Clementine’ mandarin (Citrus reticulata Blanco) is a physiological rind disorder that develops during storage. The disorder appears following leakage of essential oil from oil glands in the flavedo, which then leaks into and oxidises the albedo. Oxidised tissue appears as brown spots in the rind. Occurrence of this disorder over the years has caused high financial losses to ‘Clementine’ mandarin producers and exporting companies. Therefore, research aimed at solving this problem was identified as a priority by the citrus industry. Several factors have been reported to be associated with rind breakdown of ‘Clementine’ mandarin fruit, and include environmental factors, fruit maturity at harvest, ethylene gas degreening, storage temperature and storage duration, canopy position where fruit are borne, plant growth regulators, and differences in susceptibility among selections. Practical information has been generated on rind breakdown, but the basic physiology of the disorder is still unresolved. The objective of this study was, therefore, to quantify the effects of various factors on the development of rind breakdown of ‘Nules Clementine’ mandarin fruit, as well as to establish an association between rind pigments and rind antioxidant capacity on the development of this disorder. In this study a series of five experiments was conducted, and included quantifying the differences in susceptibility to rind breakdown between ‘Nules’ and ‘Oroval Clementine’ mandarin fruit, investigating the effects of fruit canopy position, harvest date, ethylene gas degreening, storage temperature and duration on the development of rind breakdown. The effect of these factors on rind pigments and antioxidant capacity was also reported. Generally, ‘Nules’ and ‘Oroval Clementine’ mandarin fruit exhibited similar characteristics at harvest, in terms of maturity and antioxidant capacity. After storage, ‘Nules Clementine’ mandarin developed higher levels of rind breakdown than ‘Oroval Clementine’ mandarin. However, the difference in susceptibility to rind breakdown of ‘Nules’ and ‘Oroval Clementine’ mandarin fruit could not be associated with the antioxidant capacity measured at harvest...

Thesis (MscAgric)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Alternate bearing is a common phenomenon in most commercial perennial fruit trees. In citrus, the “on” year consists of a heavy crop load with mostly small fruit, often followed by an “off” year with few, large and coarse fruit. Carbohydrates play an important role in affecting alternate bearing, especially during fruit set, but also flowering and fruit maturation, and are essential in maintaining a regular bearing habit. Changes in starch and total sugar accumulation in the leaves of the alternate bearing prone „Nadorcott‟ mandarin were followed over an entire season for both “on” and “off” trees to evaluate the possibility of using carbohydrate levels to predict bearing potential. Starch accumulation followed a distinct pattern with differences between “on” and “off” trees visible in April and May. Starch concentrations in April showed a moderate negative correlation with yield and a moderate positive correlation with return bloom. Rapid starch accumulation started prior to harvest with a peak at the beginning of flowering. Thereafter a sharp decrease in starch levels occurred until after full bloom followed by a steady decrease from physiological fruit drop towards fruit maturity. “On” trees bore 53% more fruit than “off” trees, but the return bloom of “off” trees was 140% more than “on” trees, thus illustrating the negative effect that a large crop has on the next season‟s bloom. It was concluded that for „Nadorcott‟ mandarin, leaf starch concentration in April can be used as an indication of bearing potential the following season. Pruning is a well-established management tool to control alternate bearing. Summer pruned trees had more spring flush vegetative shoots, more nodes per shoot and also more growth per parent shoot overall, compared to unpruned, control trees. Control trees had higher light levels inside the tree compared to summer pruned trees. However, no differences in leaf starch or total sugar levels during April were measured between treatments. Production of new bearing sites should therefore be considered in this experiment. It was concluded that pruning during November followed by early regrowth management gave the best balance between light penetration and production of new bearing units. Pruning in November, rather than during winter, also allowed selective pruning of shoots with or without flowers, depending on whether it was an “on” or an “off” year. When fruit thinning chemicals are applied at the optimum time and concentration, it is an effective way of moderating an alternate bearing cycle. Unfortunately no significant differences were obtained in this experiment even though the thinning treatments did show slightly higher starch levels in April 2012, indicating that the demand for energy was lower in these trees. This response was most likely due to the slightly lower yield and fruit number of the thinning treatments compared to the control. The dichlorprop treatment also showed a higher fruit growth rate, and future research should focus on timing of chemical thinning sprays in late mandarin cultivars / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Alternerende drag is 'n algemene verskynsel by die meeste meerjarige kommersiële vrugtebome. In die “aan” jaar by sitrus word 'n swaar oeslading gedra wat hoofsaaklik uit klein vrugte bestaan gevolg deur 'n “af” jaar met minder, groter en growwer vrugte. Koolhidrate speel 'n belangrike rol, veral gedurende vrugset, maar ook tydens blomtyd en vrugrypwording, en is noodsaaklik om ‟n reëlmatige drasiklus te verseker. Veranderinge in stysel- en totale suiker akkumulasie in die blare van „Nadorcott‟ mandarynbome, is deur die loop van 'n volle seisoen gevolg op beide “aan” en “af” bome om die moontlikheid te ondersoek dat koolhidraatvlakke gebruik kan word om dragpotensiaal te bepaal. Verskille tussen “aan” en “af” bome was in April en Mei sigbaar. Styselvlakke in April het 'n matige negatiewe korrelasie met drag getoon en 'n matige positiewe korrelasie met die volgende seisoen se blom. Styselvlakke het voor oestyd begin toeneem en aan die begin van blomtyd 'n piek bereik waarna 'n skerp daling voorgekom het tot na volblom. Dit is gevolg deur 'n geleidelike afname vanaf fisiologiese vrugval totdat die vrugte ryp was. “Aan” bome het 53% meer vrugte gedra as “af” bome, maar die volgende seisoen se blom van “af” bome was 140% meer. Dit illustreer die negatiewe effek wat ‟n groot oes op die volgende seisoen se blom het. Die gevolgtrekking is dat styselvlakke in blare gedurende April gebruik kan word as 'n aanduiding van die drag-potensiaal vir die komende seisoen vir „Nadorcott‟ mandarynbome. Snoei is 'n gevestigde manier om alternerende drag te beheer. Bome wat in die somer gesnoei is, het 'n groter aantal vegetatiewe lote in die lente, meer knoppe per loot en ook meer groei op ouer-lote gehad in vergelyking met die kontrole bome wat nie gesnoei is. Kontrole bome het hoër ligvlakke binne-in die boom gehad in vergelyking met die bome wat in die somer gesnoei is. Daar is egter in April geen verskille gemeet in die blare se stysel- en totale suikervlakke tussen behandelings nie. Produksie van nuwe dra-posisies moet dus vir hierdie eksperiment in ag geneem word. Die gevolgtrekking was dat, deur in November te snoei en vroeë bestuur van nuwe groei toe te pas, die beste boomvorm verkry is. Deur in November te snoei eerder as in die winter, kon daar ook selektief gesnoei word aan lote met of sonder blomme, afhangende of dit ‟n “aan” of “af” jaar was. Korrekte chemiese vruguitdunning is een van die mees effektiewe maniere om ‟n alternerende drag-siklus te verminder. Ongelukkig is geen betekenisvolle verskille in hierdie eksperiment verkry nie, ten spyte van die feit dat die uitdunningsbehandelings wel ietwat hoër styselvlakke in April 2012 getoon het. Dit dui daarop dat die behoefte aan energie in hierdie bome laer was. Die reaksie was waarskynlik te wyte aan die effens laer oes en vruggetalle as gevolg van die uitdunningsbehandelings in vergelyking met die kontrole. Die dichlorprop-behandeling het ook ‟n hoërvruggroeitempo gestimuleer. Navorsing in die toekoms behoort te fokus op die tydberekening waarvolgens die chemiese uitdunningsmiddels op laat mandarynkultivars toegedien word.

Cette thèse a pour objectif d’étudier le fonctionnement des catégories de temps, aspect et mode (TAM) et l’interaction de ces trois catégories dans des phrases complexes en mandarin moderne à partir d’un corpus tiré principalement d’énoncés authentiques (oral et écrit). A travers cette étude nous cherchons à répondre à trois questions liées à l’interprétation de la temporalité en mandarin : (i) Comment les catégories temporelles, aspectuelles et modales se manifestent et interagissent dans des phrases complexes ? ; (ii) Quelles sont les différences entre les interactions du TAM dans la phrase complexe et celles dans la phrase simple ? ; (iii) Comment est exprimé l’ordre séquentiel en mandarin ? La théorie temporelle de Comrie (1985) et le modèle aspectuel élaboré par Tournadre (2004) sont utilisés comme cadre théorique de cette étude. Dans la première partie, nous présentons les théories du TAM utilisées en linguistique générale et introduisons les notions fondamentales que nous allons utiliser dans la thèse. Puis nous abordons les moyens linguistiques employés en mandarin pour véhiculer des valeurs temporelles, aspectuelles et modales, ainsi que le fonctionnement de ces trois catégories dans la phrase simple afin de comparer ce fonctionnement avec celui dans la phrase complexe. La seconde partie consiste à analyser l’interaction du TAM dans divers types de phrases complexes, comprenant des phrases subordonnées ou des constructions verbale en série. / This dissertation is a corpus-based study of the tense, aspect and mood (TAM) and the interaction between these three categories in complex sentences in modern Mandarin Chinese. It aims to answer three questions related to the interpretation of temporality in Mandarin: (i) How temporal, aspectual and modal categories are marked and how they interact in complex sentences? ; (ii) What are the differences between the interactions of TAM in complex sentences and those in simple sentences? ; (iii) How is temporal sequence expressed in Mandarin? The temporal theory of Comrie (1985) and the aspectual model developed by Tournadre (2004) will be used as the theoretical framework to analyze the data. In the first part, we first introduce the concepts and theories of TAM used in general linguistics. Then we discuss the linguistic means used in Mandarin to convey temporal, aspectual and modal concepts, and the functioning of these three categories in simple sentences in order to compare it with the functioning in complex sentences. The second part is devoted to the analysis the interaction of TAM categories in various types of complex sentences which include those in subordinate clauses and verbal construction in series.

Cette thèse est consacrée à l’étude des syntagmes nominaux sémantiquement pluriels en chinois mandarin et aux interprétations collective et distributive qui leur sont associées. Elle offre une analyse des formes de pluralité suivantes : le syntagme coordonne par gen, les nominaux modifiés par le suffixe -men, ainsi que les sujets ou les objets des groupes verbaux modifies par quan (‘tout’-flottant). A propos du syntagme coordonne par gen, nous montrons que la conjonction gen dans le syntagme ‘A gen B’ lexicalise une contrainte de pluralité nominale par le biais de restrictions sur les conjoints. Notre argument est bâti sur trois points principaux, à savoir que la catégorie des conjoints est nécessairement [+N], que le syntagme coordonne par gen n’introduit que des individus pluriels dans le discours et que ce syntagme porte la valeur sémantique pluriel [+Pl]. Nous passons aussi en revue différents types de prédicats afin de retracer la distribution des interprétations collective et distributive des syntagmes coordonnés par gen. Ensuite, nous nous penchons sur le suffixe -men et sur l’expression formée par ce suffixe et un nom commun ou un nom propre. Notre examen couvre principalement deux questions, celle de la nature de -men et celle de la (in)définitude de l’expression suffixée par -men en mandarin. Nous soutenons que -men n’est pas un marqueur collectif mais plutôt un marqueur pluriel. Cependant, ce marqueur n’est pas obligatoire, à la différence des marqueur du pluriel tels que -s dans les langues occidentales, le mandarin étant une langue à classificateur. Quant à l’(in)définitude de l’expression suffixée par -men, nous admettons que c’est un pluriel défini, mais ceci du fait que -men ne s’attache qu’aux pronoms personnels et aux noms d’humains, noms qui occupent le hautde la hiérarchie d’animacité. Donc l’expression suffixée par -men hériterait de la définitude en partie de la nature de son domaine fortement individué. Enfin, nous nous intéressons a l’interprétation distributive des syntagmes nominaux dans la phrase ou figure l’adverbe quan (‘tout’-flottant). Nous affirmons que quan impose la lecture distributive de manière autonome et nous en proposons une analyse en tant que modificateur de prédicat d’évènement. Quan cible un nominal relie par un θ-rôle et encapsule dans ce rôle l’instruction de distribution. La distributivité renforcée par quan implique une relation distributive entre deux entités : le nominal qui est sémantiquement pluriel et l’évènement pluriel / The thesis invested the research on the semantically plural nominal phrases in Mandarin Chinese and on their collectif and distributif interpretations. It offered an analysis of the following form of pluralities : the coordinated phrase with gen, the nominals modified by the suffix -men, and the subjects or the objects of the VP modified by quan (the floating quantifier). Concerning the coordinated phrase with gen, we will show that the conjunction gen of the phrase ‘A gen B’ lexicalize the constraint of the plurality via the restrictions on the conjoint elements. Our argument is mainly based on three points : 1) the category of the conjuncts is necessarily [+N] ; 2) coordinated phrases with gen introduce only the plural individuals in the discourse and 3) this nominal phrase characterizes the semantic plural value [+Pl]. We will also examine the different types of predicates in order to retrace thedistribution of collective and distributive interpretations of the coordinated phrases with gen. Then, we look into the suffix –men and the expressions formed by this suffix and a common noun or a proper noun. The investigation will mainly concern two questions : the question of the nature of –men and the question of the (in)definitude of the expressions suffixed by –men in Mandarin Chinese. We will argue that –men is not a collectif marker, but preferably a plural marker. However, different from plural markers in the western languages for exemple –s, the marker –men in Mandarin Chinese which is typically a classifer language, is not obligatory. Regarding the (in)definitude of the expressions suffixed by -men, we will admit that they are definite plurals, because of the fact that –men attaches only to only to personal pronouns and humain nouns, the nouns which occupy a high hierarchy of animacity. In consequence, the expressions suffixed by –men partly inherit the definitude of the nature of its considerably individuated domain. Finally, we are interested in the distributive interpretation of the nominal phrases in the sentences wherethe adverbial quan (the floating quantifier) appeares. We will claim that quan imposes the distributive reading in an autonomous manner and we will put forward an analysis of adverbial quan as a modifier of event predicate. Quan targets nominals linked by θ-roles and encapsulate in this role the instruction of distribution. The distributivity reinforced by quan involves a distributive relation between two entities : the nominal which is semantically plural and the plural event.