In:The Development of the Chinese Cleft Construction: A diachronic constructional approach
Fangqiong Zhan
[Constructional Approaches to Language 41] 2026
► pp. 39–67
Chapter 3A constructional analysis of the cleft construction in Modern Chinese
Published online: 5 February 2026
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.41.c3
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.41.c3
Article outline
- 3.1Introduction
- 3.2The Chinese copular construction
- 3.2.1The syntactic concept of “copula”
- 3.2.2The semantics of the copula
- 3.2.3The constructional network of the copular construction
- 3.3Adverb-based analysis of shi in cleft sentences
- 3.4A constructional analysis of the Chinese cleft construction
- 3.5The relationships between VP
de, V de O, and bare shi clefts
- 3.5.1The interchangeability of VP de and V de O
- 3.5.2The relationship between VP de and bare shi clefts
- 3.6Summary
Notes
