9 A cartographic approach to Chinese V de O clefts
Abstract
This paper investigates so-called V de O clefts in Chinese, a specific type of “clefts” where the de particle appears between the verb and the object, and proposes a cartographic approach to their syntactic and semantic properties. While some common generalizations about this pattern are shown to hold upon closer examination (i.e., exhaustive focus, obligatory past reading, ban on TMA markers), some do not (i.e., strict adjacency effect, term focus restriction). Two key projections are argued to exist in the relevant functional hierarchy, each linked to one crucial element in the pattern: (i) a FocP selected by the copula shi; (ii) an Asp✶P headed by the verbal particle de. The former explains the focus effects with syntactic encoding and the latter accounts for the temporal/aspectual peculiarities with the marking of perfective aspect (related predictions about predicate restrictions are also presented). The derivation of V de O clefts involves overt focus movement of an extended “eventive” projection, which minimally contains an Asp✶P. This movement is triggered by a focus feature either on the whole constituent (VP/S+VP) or on a smaller constituent within it (verb/object/subject/adjunct), the latter case demonstrating a pied-piping movement.
Abstract
This paper investigates so-called V de O clefts in Chinese, a specific type of “clefts” where the de particle appears between the verb and the object, and proposes a cartographic approach to their syntactic and semantic properties. While some common generalizations about this pattern are shown to hold upon closer examination (i.e., exhaustive focus, obligatory past reading, ban on TMA markers), some do not (i.e., strict adjacency effect, term focus restriction). Two key projections are argued to exist in the relevant functional hierarchy, each linked to one crucial element in the pattern: (i) a FocP selected by the copula shi; (ii) an Asp✶P headed by the verbal particle de. The former explains the focus effects with syntactic encoding and the latter accounts for the temporal/aspectual peculiarities with the marking of perfective aspect (related predictions about predicate restrictions are also presented). The derivation of V de O clefts involves overt focus movement of an extended “eventive” projection, which minimally contains an Asp✶P. This movement is triggered by a focus feature either on the whole constituent (VP/S+VP) or on a smaller constituent within it (verb/object/subject/adjunct), the latter case demonstrating a pied-piping movement.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- It-clefts: State-of-the-art, and some empirical challenges 1
- 1 Cleft wh-questions as biclausal structures 11
- 2 What is it that requires or constrains clefts? (Dis)Favouring factors for clefting in Germanic and Romance 35
- 3 Subject versus object clefts: A fresh perspective on a robust asymmetry 81
- 4 Making the case for distinguishing information structure from specification in English it-clefts 105
- 5 The emergence and early development of c’est ‘it is’ clefts in French L1 135
- 6 Distributed computational models of intervention effects: A study on cleft structures in French 157
- 7 It-cleft constructions in Réunion Creole 181
- 8 (It-)clefts in Palenquero Creole and the specificational copula 217
- 9 A cartographic approach to Chinese V de O clefts 235
- Index 257
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- It-clefts: State-of-the-art, and some empirical challenges 1
- 1 Cleft wh-questions as biclausal structures 11
- 2 What is it that requires or constrains clefts? (Dis)Favouring factors for clefting in Germanic and Romance 35
- 3 Subject versus object clefts: A fresh perspective on a robust asymmetry 81
- 4 Making the case for distinguishing information structure from specification in English it-clefts 105
- 5 The emergence and early development of c’est ‘it is’ clefts in French L1 135
- 6 Distributed computational models of intervention effects: A study on cleft structures in French 157
- 7 It-cleft constructions in Réunion Creole 181
- 8 (It-)clefts in Palenquero Creole and the specificational copula 217
- 9 A cartographic approach to Chinese V de O clefts 235
- Index 257
