ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines from a semantic perspective how focus adverbs in Mandarin, focus adverbs, verbal suffixes, and sentence-final particles in Cantonese and the co-occurrence of multiple forms of focus adverbs and post-verbal particles conspire to encode focus structures and influence focus manifestation in Chinese. It examines and compares the semantics of additive particles in Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese. The book summarizes the underlying differences between Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese in marking additivity and restrictiveness, and determines the division of labour among the additive and restrictive particles when they co-occur in Cantonese, so as to derive a general principle of focus marking in Mandarin and Cantonese. It concludes with the findings made in previous chapters and explores the theoretical implications that the current work brings to focus interpretation and manifestation in Chinese and natural language at large.