Exhaustivity, Contrastivity, and the Semantics of Mandarin Cleft-related Structures

Synopsis

Exhaustivity, Contrastivity, and the Semantics of Mandarin Cleft-related Structures investigates the semantics of the cleft and cleft-related structures in Mandarin, which, over several decades, have presented analytical challenges for semantic theory.
The goal of this book, in broad terms, is three-fold: (i) to figure out what clefting adds to the semantics of a sentence; (ii) to set apart the meaning and the discourse function of each type of cleft-related structure; and (iii) to provide a uniform analysis of Mandarin clefts and their related structures. More specifically, it addresses the following questions: (i) what is the semantics of Mandarin clefts? (ii) what do exhaustivity and contrastivity contribute to the meaning of clefts? (iii) what are the semantic (or pragmatic) factors that determine the variation of clefts, related structures, and canonical sentences? and (iv) cross-linguistically speaking, how do Mandarin shi...de cleft and its related structures differ from similar constructions such as English it-cleft, French c’est cleft, and German es-cleft?
This book will be informative for linguists who are working on cleft constructions and focus on sensitive structures cross-linguistically, and those interested in experimental semantics and pragmatics.

Book details

Series:

Routledge Studies in Chinese Linguistics

Author:

Ying Liu

ISBN:

9781000821161

Related ISBNs:

9780367631420, 9780367631451, 9781003112303

Publisher:

Taylor and Francis

Pages:

220

Reading age:

Not specified

Includes images:

Yes

Date of addition:

2022-12-30

Usage restrictions:

Copyright

Copyright date:

2023

Copyright by:

Ying Liu, The right of Ying Liu to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Categories:

Foreign Language Study, Language Arts, Nonfiction