Shi … de focus clefts in Mandarin Chinese
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Waltraud Paul
Abstract
The shi … de construction in Mandarin Chinese is a cover term for at least four distinct constructions. We focus on the remarkable internal properties of the shi … de pattern proper, where both shi and de are present. We concur with a long tradition of scholarship identifying shi … de as a cleft construction, but we show it to have very different properties from it – or pseudo-clefts in languages like English. The crucial distinguishing property of shi … de clefts is that they involve no A′ movement. This is linked to the fact that the presupposition in the shi … de focus cleft involves a projection smaller than CP. It thus lacks a landing site for A′ movement and fails to host material such as negation, normally compatible with full CP clefts in languages such as English. The Mandarin pattern shows that the basic semantic property of clefts, bipartioning into focus and presupposition, is logically independent from A′ movement.
©Walter de Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
- Guest editor's note
- Deconstructing the shì … de construction
- Focus on identity – the dark side of zìjĭ
- The wh/q-polarity adverb daodi in Mandarin Chinese and the syntax of focus
- On parts of speech in Chinese: gen
- The serial verb construction in Chinese: A tenacious myth and a Gordian knot
- Shi … de focus clefts in Mandarin Chinese
- D is for Demonstrative – Investigating the position of the demonstrative in Chinese and Zhuang
- Object specificity in Chinese: A view from the vP periphery
- Publications received October 2007 – September 2008
- Language index
- Subject index
- Contents of volume 25
Articles in the same Issue
- Guest editor's note
- Deconstructing the shì … de construction
- Focus on identity – the dark side of zìjĭ
- The wh/q-polarity adverb daodi in Mandarin Chinese and the syntax of focus
- On parts of speech in Chinese: gen
- The serial verb construction in Chinese: A tenacious myth and a Gordian knot
- Shi … de focus clefts in Mandarin Chinese
- D is for Demonstrative – Investigating the position of the demonstrative in Chinese and Zhuang
- Object specificity in Chinese: A view from the vP periphery
- Publications received October 2007 – September 2008
- Language index
- Subject index
- Contents of volume 25
