현대 중국어 논항 생략 계사문의 정보구조 — ‘我就是’, ‘就是我’ 형식을 중심으로

Abstract

In communication, the way in which information is conveyed in sentences is essential. Every language possesses language-specific methods in which information is expressed. In the case of the Mandarin Chinese language, information packaging is directly expressed through word ordering. The Chinese sentences ‘Wo jiu shi(我就是)’ and ‘Jiu shi wo(就是我)’, which are the subjects of this study, are interpreted as ‘저입니다(It’s me)’ in Korean. However, selectional restrictions of these sentences exist and are dependent upon the context. Therefore, this study aims to reveal that the selectional restrictions are caused by differences in information structures through the analysis of discourse context, focus structure, and accent distribution. Based on the findings of this study, the following conclusions can be drawn: First, when answering a question with ‘Wo jiu shi’ or ‘Jiu shi wo’, there is a tendency to maintain the information structure of the question asked. Second, in the copular sentence ‘X是Y’, ‘X’ is an unmarked constituent that refers to the denotation of a referent(object). Further, ‘Y’ is an unmarked constituent that refers to the connotation of the referent and sometimes is marked as referring to denotation in the equative relation. Third, in the ‘X是Y’ structure, ‘X’ becomes an unmarked topic and ‘Y’ becomes the natural focus. However, when an exclusive focus is required in the context of an open proposition, the speaker can utter ‘Wo jiu shi’. In this case, the accented stress occurs in the subject ‘Wo(我)’. In other words, when looking for a specific entity within a group, such as ‘laoban zai ma?(老板在吗?)’ or ‘≪zhenlibao≫ jizhe shi na wei?(≪真理报≫记者是哪位?)’, the speaker can answer ‘Wo jiu shi’ regardless of the word order of the question asked. Fourth, the predicate-focus structure ‘Wo jiu shi’ is divided into the following three types. First, the pro-verbal form ‘shi(是)’ is the focus and it is a substitution of the predicate in the previous sentence. Second, the predicate ‘Jiu shi (NP)(就是(NP))’ is the focus. Third, the sentence is a verum-focus structure that emphasizes propositional truth, and ‘Jiu(就)’ is accented. Fifth, ‘Jiu shi wo’ is realized with two information structures: the predicate-focus(object) structure in which ‘wo’ is the focus; and, the verum-focus structure in which ‘jiu’ is the focus.