On the interpretation of number and classifiers

Mandarin and Cantonese, both of which are numeral classifier languages, present an interesting puzzle concerning a compositional account of number in the various forms of nominals. First, bare nouns are number neutral (or vague in number). Second, cl-noun combinations appear to have different interpretations depending on contexts. When they occur in isolation (bare cl-noun), they can only be interpreted as singular. When they occur with numerals above one, or with expressions such as hěn duō/hou2 do1 ‘a lot’ they are interpreted as plural. This paper discusses the relevant data, as well as three potential solutions to this puzzle.