Chinese Object Focus VdeO Cleft Sentences: A Corpus-Based Investigation
Abstract
This paper offers the first corpus-based study of the underexplored Chinese object-focus VdeO clefts (OFCs), which encode narrow focus on the object within a realized event. Using two large-scale corpora, we investigated their distribution with the 20 most frequent Chinese dynamic verbs, examining subject and object referents as well as focus patterns. Analyses show asymmetries in animacy, concreteness and referentiality, challenging earlier claims about object definiteness. OFCs predominantly convey non-contrastive focus, highlighting objects or supporting anaphoric recovery, while contrastive readings are infrequent and mostly implicit.
Presentato: 19 Dicembre 2025 | Accettato: 19 Giugno 2026 | Pubblicato 30 Luglio 2026 | Lingua: en
Keywords Semantic features • Corpus-based analysis • Chinese narrow-focus clefts • Focus realization • Object focus clefts
Copyright © 2026 Alessia Iurato, Laura Locatelli. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/AnnOr/2385-3042/2026/62/004