Shi, Focus And Quantification

This thesis explores the syntactic distribution and focus semantics of "shi" and shi-construction, and the interface conditions and interactions among the various grammatical levels adumbrated in shi-constructions.It is generally held that there are different kinds of shis in Mandarin Chinese, the copular shi (as represented by (1) and (2)) and the focus-marking shi (as represented by (3) (cf. Paris's (1979) and Teng's (1979) distinction between the pseudo-clefts and clefts; Huang (1982)'s distinction between adverb/operator shi and copulative shi; Zhu (1982); among others).(1) Zhang San shi laoshi.(2) Zhang San zai huda nian de shi yuyanxue.(3) shi Zhang San zai huda nian yuyanxue.For the simplicity of theorization, is it possible that we maintain a "mono-shi" analysis and provide a uniform account for "shi" and shi-constructions, with other things being equal?Another motivation is that almost all the afore-mentioned works fail to explain why in pseudo-clefts, only the nominal element(s) could immediately follow shi (see Paris 1979) while in clefts, almost any element(s) could be within the immediate domain of shi(cf. Hedberg 1994):(4) ?/* Zhang San lai kan ni de difang shi [pp cong Beijing].(5) Zhang San shi [pp cong Beijing] lai kan ni de.A further exploration also shows that the above three sentence forms (as represented by (1)-(3) respectively) are different from each other strikingly in the distribution of focus. Only the sentences like (1) allow the "double focus", which is marginal in sentences like (2) and totally disallowed in sentences like (3):(6) [ZHANG SAN]~F shi [LAOSHI]~F.(7) a. ? Zhang San zai huda niande shi [YUYANXUE]~F. b. ? [ZHANG SAN]~F zai huda nian de shi yuyanxue.(8) a.*/? shi Zhang San dasi le [XIAOGOU]~F. b. */? shi Zhang San [DASI]~F le xiaogou.The answer to the questions above will naturally shed light on the other notorious problems concerning "shi":(9) * yi ge ren shi laoshi.(10) * yi ge gaogao shoushou de ren shi laoshi.It is argued that Mandarin Chinese is not the language that absolutely disallow "indefinitesubject NP". Some sentences with the indefinite NPs, when more modifiers are added to the subject NP, would become more acceptable, (cf. Xu 1997, Fan 1985) However, in sentences with "shi" as the main predicate, the indefinite NP in subject position is not allowed, no matter how many modifiers are added to it (this could be shown by the sentences (9) and (10) above). This suggests that we have to seek some alternative ways for it.How to account for the problems above while maintaining a "mono-s/i/" analysis in the meantime? This thesis attempts to provide a uniform account for the problems above incorporating the correspondences among Logical Judgment, Sentence Form, Focus Structure and Quantification Types.Since Davidson (1967), it is gradually accepted that there are two types of quantification in natural languages, i.e. quantification over events (QOE for short) and quantification over individuals (QOI for short). And languages may differ from each other in the choice of the basic carrier of the "event":(11) * Zhang San xihuan shi yuyanxue. To compare: John likes only linguistics.And researchers even noted that the two types of quantification correspond with different kinds of focus structures, which in turn are determined by different sentence forms. The sentence forms are the linguistic realization of the two fundamental logical judgments: the categorical judgment and thetic judgment (cf. Kuroda 1972).(12) Logical Judgment, Sentence Forms, Focus Structure and Quantification Types Logical Judgments Sentence Forms =>Focus Structure ^^Quantification TypesThe above ideas shed new light on the shi-focus problems. The above three sentences ((l)-(3)) essentially express different kinds of judgment and accordingly, have different focus structures, i.e. categorical focus, identificational focus and sentence focus respectively, which in turn require different types of quantification (cf. Lambrecht 1994; Breul 2004):(13) ^/-constructions, sentence forms, focus structures and quantification typesA. For the first type of shi-construction:prototypical categorical judgment -> categorical focus -> QOI ( "I" in comment)B. For the second type of ^///-construction (pseudo-clefts):(marginal) categorical judgment-* identificational focus -> QOI ("I" in topic)C. For the third type of s/?/-construction (clefts):categorical judgment and thetic judgment-?sentence focus —? parallel QOE ("E": any event roles) and QOI ("I" in topic)This formulation, if proved to on the right track, will also shed new light on the other focus sensitive constructions in Mandarin Chinese, the ones with cai and ye, for instance.