Focus and Background Marking in Mandarin Chinese

Name: Focus and Background Marking in Mandarin Chinese
Brand: Taylor & Francis Ltd
Price: 263.75 AUD
Availability: BackOrder

System and Theory behind cai, jiu, dou and ye

By: Daniel Hole

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Hardcover | 27 November 2003 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover
324 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
23.4 x 15.6 x 1.91

Hardcover

RRP $305.00

$263.75

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This is an investigation into the grammaticalized system of focus-background agreement in Mandarin Chinese. The particles "cai, jiu, dou and ye" are in a specific use type, shown to form the core of a highly systematic paradigm. Foci agree with their backgrounds, with the particles being the agreement markers. The semantic categories involved are different types of quantification over alternatives: all alternatives may be true, or some, or not all, or none. This minimal semantics is capable of explaining the use of "cai, jiu, dou and ye and two more" "particles (hai and zai") in various contexts that have figured in controversial debates over the past three decades. This book is not just a valuable companion for anyone interested in core aspects of Mandarin Chinese grammar, it caters for the interests of theoretical linguists as well as for linguists from other fields with an interest in information structure, focus and contrastive topics, and quantification. The outstanding characteristics of this book, viz. its effortless integration of findings from formal semantics without heavy formal load, makes it rewarding reading for both linguists with a less formal background, and for researchers with some knowledge of formal semantics.

Industry Reviews

'[This] book is an outstanding piece of linguistic literature, with equally important contributions to both Chinese and general theoretical linguistics. It is written in a lucid way and uses formal technicalities only to the extent that they are inescapable ... its very honest, yet strict scholarly attitude brings fresh air into the literature of the field, which I appreciate above all of its numerous other merits.' - Cahiers de Linguistique - Asie Orientale

'This study provides a comprehensive, insightful, and responsible scrutiny
on information structure and semantics in Mandarin grammar, completed by a
careful consideration of the syntax-semantics interface ... [it] is an outstanding piece of work that I would recommend both to Chinese linguists, and to linguists interested in information structure.' - Linguist List

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