Focus and Background Marking in Mandarin Chinese

This is an investigation into the grammaticalized system of focus-background agreement in Mandarin Chinese. The particles cái jiù dou and ye are in a specific use type shown to form the core of a highly systematic paradigm.This book is not just a valuable companion for anyone interested in core aspects of Mandarin Chinese grammar. It caters for the interests of theoretical linguists as well as for linguists from other fields with an interest in information-structure focus and contrastive topics and quantification. The outstanding characteristic of this book viz. its effortless integration of findings from formal semantics without heavy formal load makes it rewarding reading both for linguists with a less formal background and for researchers with some knowledge of formal semantics.