The interpretation of copular constructions in Chinese: Semantic underspecification and pragmatic enrichment

Abstract

This paper presents an account of a range of grammatical constructions formed by the Chinese copula shi ‘be’, such as predicative, emphatic and elliptical constructions. It is argued that (i) the fact that the interpretation of a copular clause may vary according to the post- or pre- shi expression indicates that the copular morpheme is crucially dependent on the local linguistic context for its meaning; (ii) the copular morpheme, which is historically a demonstrative pronoun meaning ‘this’, is employed as an anaphoric expression with underspecified content, precisely a predicate pro-form. Within the framework of Dynamic Syntax ( Kempson et al., 2001; Cann et al., 2005), shi is analyzed uniformly as projecting a metavariable whose actual value is derived pragmatically from the context in which the copular clause is uttered, precisely through inference over the properties of the copula's associate. It is thus shown that syntactic and pragmatic processes interact to determine the different readings of the copular constructions. The dynamic analysis proposed not only provides a formal characterization of a range of copular constructions without any stipulations, but a straightforward explanation of their communicative functions, in particular the affirmative function of the emphatic construction.