This paper investigates force shift, a phenomenon in which the canonical discourse conventions, or force, associated with a clause type can be overridden to yield polar questions with the help of additional force-indicating devices. Previous studies attribute force shift to the presence of a complex question force component operating on semantic content. Based on utterance particles and particle clusters in Cantonese, we analyze force shift as resulting from compositional operations on force-bearing expressions. We propose that a simplex force, such as assertion or question, denotes unanchored sentence acts, while a force-shifting particle like Cantonese ho2 is an anchoring function anchoring a sentence act to the speaker while querying whether or not the addressee can perform the sentence act. The proposed semantics makes predictions about ho2’s interactions with addressee-changing operations and imperatives, as well as about a larger family of force shift phenomena.

本文研究了力转移，这是一种现象，在这种现象中，与子句类型相关的规范话语惯例或力可以在额外的力指示装置的帮助下被覆盖以产生极性问题。先前的研究将力的转移归因于作用于语义内容的复杂问题力成分的存在。基于粤语的言语助词和助词簇，我们分析了受力表达的组合运算所导致的力转移。我们提出单纯形力，例如断言或问题，表示未锚定的句子行为，而像粤语ho2这样的力转移粒子是一种锚定函数，将句子行为锚定到说话者，同时询问收件人是否可以执行该句子行为。所提出的语义对ho2与收件人更改操作和命令的交互以及更大的力转移现象进行预测。