Focus Inside: Evidence from Spanish and Chinese

Dunia Catalina Méndez Vallejo, Yu Yin Hsu (Corresponding Author)

Research output: Chapter in book / Conference proceedingChapter in an edited book (as author)Academic researchpeer-review

Abstract

This chapter provides a fresh empirical examination of the interpretations and structures of the focalizing ser (FS) construction in Spanish and the emphatic shi structure in Mandarin Chinese. Its findings support Belletti’s (2004) claim that the TP-internal domain contains a focus projection, similar to what has been argued regarding sentences’ left periphery (CP). We report that these two typologically unrelated languages both allow TP-internal focus projections, before going on to explore the language-specific similarities and differences among various sentences containing ser and shi. Finally, we propose that both ser and shi acquire discourse functions to express focus information in a specific, systematic way.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationLinguistic Interfaces in East-Asian Languages
Subtitle of host publicationA Festschrift in Honor of Yoshihisa Kitagawa
EditorsJen Ting, Yu-Yin Hsu
PublisherSpringer Nature
Chapter8
Pages151-179
Edition1
ISBN (Electronic)978-981-19-4445-1
ISBN (Print)978-981-19-4444-4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 9 Aug 2024

Publication series

NameStudies in East Asian Linguistics
PublisherSpringer Nature
ISSN (Print)2522-5103
ISSN (Electronic)2522-5111

Keywords

  • Information structure
  • TP-internal focus
  • Spanish focalizing ser
  • Chinese shi

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