Focus and Background Marking in Mandarin Chinese

Daniel P. Hole, born in 1969, holds an M.A. degree in Theoretical Linguistics, Phonetics and Philosophy, and a Ph.D. degree in Linguistics. Following studies in Munich, Cologne, Berlin and Taibei, he now works as an assistant lecturer at the University of Munich. His research interests include information-structure, typology and diathesis alternations, with emphasis put on the integration of results from formal semantics.

• 1. Introduction2. Use types3. Triggers and constraints: where parametric cái, jiù, dou and ye must (not) be used4. Cái, jiù, dou, ye and focus semantics5. Problems and refinements6. Conclusions and outlook7. References8. Index

'[This] book is an outstanding piece of linguistic literature, with equally important contributions to both Chinese and general theoretical linguistics. It is written in a lucid way and uses formal technicalities only to the extent that they are inescapable ... its very honest, yet strict scholarly attitude brings fresh air into the literature of the field, which I appreciate above all of its numerous other merits.' - Cahiers de Linguistique - Asie Orientale'This study provides a comprehensive, insightful, and responsible scrutiny on information structure and semantics in Mandarin grammar, completed by a careful consideration of the syntax-semantics interface ... [it] is an outstanding piece of work that I would recommend both to Chinese linguists, and to linguists interested in information structure.' - Linguist List