A Contrastive Study Of English And Chinese Cleft Constructions

Focus is the prominent information in a sentence. "It be…that/who…"structure and cleft sentence of "shi" are respectively the most typical focusing constructions in English and Chinese. Previous research usually focuses on the description of the structure, syntax and usage, while contrastive study is few. Based on the approach of construction grammar, they are called English and Chinese cleft constructions. In this thesis, their properties are compared from respects of phonetics, structure and semantics, and their structures are explained by cognitive linguistics.In English cleft construction——"It be…that/who…", the focused constituent is closely behind "be". In Chinese "shi" cleft construction, the focused constituent is closely behind "shi". Not being as the predicative verb, "shi" is placed before the predicate to mark the focus. If "shi" is not to focalize the predicative verb, the structure of it is"(Y)+shi+X(F)+(Z)+VP"; if "shi" is to focalize the predicative verb phrase, it is "subject+(Y)+shi/+VP".Phonetically, the focus of cleft construction is stressed.Structurally, the structural properties of Chinese cleft construction distinguish from English. The focused constituent of Chinese can only have one. English allows two but also has a constraint, i.e. they must be both modifying adverbials. The form of English cleft construction includes marked ones and unmarked ones. In Chinese, the position of "shi+focus" can be in the initial place of a sentence or in the middle.Semantically, in English and Chinese cleft constructions, the relation between the focus and the conjunction clause is focus and presupposition. The focus of cleft construction has semantic constraints:it must be a complete sentence constituent; it must be of semantic importance; it is closely related to the main clause in the proposition sentence; subject complements and object complements are restricted to become the focus generally; focus adhere to the principle of discreteness. Objects are restricted to be directly focalized in Chinese cleft constructions. As the semantic properties of cleft constructions in English and Chinese distinct, constituents which can become the focus also distinct. So are semantic categories.English and Chinese cleft constructions can be explained in cognitive linguistics. In English and Chinese cleft constructions, according to the iconicity of proximity, the focus marker must be placed closely to the focused constituent. The focused constituent in English clefts is placed behind the marker "be", the predicate of the main clause. Since the sequence structure of the modifier and the head word in Chinese clefts is "modifier+head word", the focused constituent is placed behind the marker "shi". According to the sequential order principle, "more important or more urgent information tends to be placed first in the string", in English and Chinese cleft constructions, the focused constituent being placed first forms the strong focus. According to the defining features and the associated features in language, it is easy to determine Figure and Ground constituents in English and Chinese cleft constructions:the focus corresponds to Figure, and the rest of the construction behind the focus corresponds to Ground.Through contrastive study, this thesis reveals similarities and differences between English and Chinese cleft constructions and is expected to help us get a better understanding of the two languages. The present study is another plausible application of construction grammar to English and Chinese sentences, particularly the special ones. In addition, it also provides help and reference to teaching and learning Chinese as a foreign language and also be of great help to English-Chinese translation.