{"title":"TOWARD A UNITARY ACCOUNT OF DIVERSE SHI CONSTRUCTIONS IN MANDARIN CHINESE","authors":"Wenshan Li","doi":"10.6519/TJL.2016.14(1).4","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The morpheme "shi" (the fourth tone) in Mandarin has four major uses: as a copula verb, a verum focus marker and an associate of argument/adjunct focus, and it is also involved in elliptical sentences. These uses have been well-observed in the literature, and many previous attempts have been made to provide a unitary theoretical characterization of these uses. In this paper, a revisit is paid to these uses of "shi" and it is argued that some of the latest unitary theoretical accounts of this morpheme are problematic. A novel unitary theoretical account of these uses is formulated from a parsing perspective in the framework of Dynamic Syntax, wherein sentences are viewed as left-to-right word-by-word monotonic processes of constructing propositions. It is proposed that "shi" always contributes a predicate of identity relation which combines with a corresponding formula of some logical type. Whether the presence of "shi" in a sentence gives rise to pragmatic effects or not depends on "shi" and the syntactic properties of the expression following "shi".","PeriodicalId":41000,"journal":{"name":"Taiwan Journal of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Taiwan Journal of Linguistics","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.6519/TJL.2016.14(1).4","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
The morpheme "shi" (the fourth tone) in Mandarin has four major uses: as a copula verb, a verum focus marker and an associate of argument/adjunct focus, and it is also involved in elliptical sentences. These uses have been well-observed in the literature, and many previous attempts have been made to provide a unitary theoretical characterization of these uses. In this paper, a revisit is paid to these uses of "shi" and it is argued that some of the latest unitary theoretical accounts of this morpheme are problematic. A novel unitary theoretical account of these uses is formulated from a parsing perspective in the framework of Dynamic Syntax, wherein sentences are viewed as left-to-right word-by-word monotonic processes of constructing propositions. It is proposed that "shi" always contributes a predicate of identity relation which combines with a corresponding formula of some logical type. Whether the presence of "shi" in a sentence gives rise to pragmatic effects or not depends on "shi" and the syntactic properties of the expression following "shi".
期刊介绍:
Taiwan Journal of Linguistics is an international journal dedicated to the publication of research papers in linguistics and welcomes contributions in all areas of the scientific study of language. Contributions may be submitted from all countries and are accepted all year round. The language of publication is English. There are no restrictions on regular submission; however, manuscripts simultaneously submitted to other publications cannot be accepted. TJL adheres to a strict standard of double-blind reviews to minimize biases that might be caused by knowledge of the author’s gender, culture, or standing within the professional community. Once a manuscript is determined as potentially suitable for the journal after an initial screening by the editor, all information that may identify the author is removed, and copies are sent to at least two qualified reviewers. The selection of reviewers is based purely on professional considerations and their identity will be kept strictly confidential by TJL. All feedback from the reviewers, except such comments as may be specifically referred to the attention of the editor, is faithfully relayed to the authors to assist them in improving their work, regardless of whether the paper is to be accepted, accepted upon minor revision, revised and resubmitted, or rejected.