CHAPTER 3 CORPUS RESULTS AND DISCUSSTION
3.2.3.1 The Stress-Focused Cleft= Argument Focus
The stress-focus, with new clefted constituent and presupposed clause, as in (86), can be comparable with Lambrecht’s (1993, 2001) argument focus, as in (87).
(86) So I learned to sew books. They’re really good books. It’s just THE COVERS that ARE ROTTEN. (Prince 1978: 896, ex. 38a
As we can see, in (87a), English has two ways to express argument focus: SV order and it-cleft. In English it-clefts, the clefted constituent ‘foot’ bears the new information, whereas the cleft clause ‘hurt’ bears the old information. This explains that the property of “stress focused” clefts can be applied to both English canonical sentences and it-cleft sentences to manifest an argument focus.
(87) The argument-focus (IF) sentence
3. Discontinuous cleft 114 (ex 105-106, 109-110)
c. Italy : VS / It-cleft
No, mi fa male il PIEDE. / No, e ill PIEDE che mi fa male.
d. French: It-cleft
Non, c’est mon PIED qui me fait mal. Lambrecht (2001).
As indicated in Table 5, our data shows that Chinese shi...(de) used to express the property of stress-focused cleft is more frequent in English non-it-clefts than in English it-clefts (20.6% vs. 14.2%). It is observed that English non-cleft tends to be translated in the shi...(de) structure in Chinese with an adjunct focus or a wh-word, as in (88)-(90), whereas English it-cleft Chinese is usually translated in the shi...(de) structure with a subject or an adjunct focus, as in (91)-(92). In (88), the English non-cleft ‘Whence it came we did not at first perceive’ is translated into Chinese
shi...(de) structure
這是從什麼時候開始的. In the scope of shi...(de) structure, the adjunct focus with a question word 從什麼時候 serves as the new information, whereas the predicate 開始 serves as the old information since it is mentioned prominently in the immediately preceding sentence 我的同胞開始起了騷動. Apart from the interrogative construction as in (88), the focus can be a source adjunct, as in (89). In (89), the English canonical sentence ‘he must have climbed from the north’ is translated into Chinese shi...(de) structure 剛 剛 一 定 是 從 北 邊 爬 上 來 的.
Syntactically, the constituent in the shi...de is the predicate focus, but functionally, it is the argument focus. As far as information properties are concerned, the predicate 爬上來is not focused because it is repeated in the previous context不停的往上爬 and hence represents old information. On the other hand, the adjunct 從北邊 is focused because it is not repeated in the previous context and hence represents new to the old information. This suggests that the stress-focused property can help us to tell predicate focus from adjunct focus, and makes the focus interpretation less ambiguous.A similar example is given in (90).
(88) a. ‘It is now many years ago,’ said Gloin, that a shadow of disquiet fell upon our people. Whence it came we did not at first perceive. (p.315) b.「許多年以前，」葛羅音說：「我們的同胞開始起了騷動，我們不知
道這是從什麼時候開始的。..」(p.356)
(89) a. He seemed all the time to be climbing up and up...A glance showed him that he was now facing southwards and was on a round hill-top, which he must have climbed from the north. (p.184)
b. 他只知道自己一直不停地往上爬...隨著他的腳步，迷霧開 始漸漸散開，滿天的星斗也都露出了面孔，從星座的排列，他判斷自 己正往南邊走；由於目前自己身在一個圓丘頂上，剛剛一定是從北邊 爬上來的。(p.210)
(90) a. Then you knew of the Riders already-before I met them?...I heard news of them only after I left you in June; but that story must wait. For the moment we have been save from disaster, by Aragorn. (p.289)
b. 那麼你在我遇到他們之前，就知道有這些黑騎士了？／「黑騎士就 是戒靈，是魔戒之王的九名僕從。但我不知道他們已經再度轉生，否 則我會選擇立刻和你逃離夏爾。我是在六月離開你之後才得知這消息 的，這段經歷先不急著說。(p.323)
In addition to English non-it-cleft, English it-cleft can also be translated into Chinese shi...(de) structure with an adjunct focus or a subject focus. For example, in (91), the English it-cleft ‘It was the Elven-folk of gildor that told me this’ is translated into Chinese shi...(de) structure 是個叫吉爾多的精靈告訴我這些事情的 with NP focus rather than sentence focus. The old information in the shi...(de) sentence is the predicate phrase告訴我這些事情 and the focus is the subject吉爾多的精靈. As we mentioned above, the information property can be used to distinguish the given and new information. Hence, the predicate phrase ‘told me this’ has a high degree of referential givenness, probably activated, since it can be derivable from the immediately preceding sentence ‘I heard the ill news,’ and is thus relationally given.
On the other hand, the NP ‘the Elven-folk of gildor’ is relationally new to the predicate phrase, since it is not mentioned in the preceding context, and is thus relationally and referentially new. Likewise, in (92), which is (46) repeated here, the
English it-cleft ‘It’s from Hobbiton that this here black rider comes’ is translated into Chinese shi...(de) structure 他一定是從哈比屯來的 in which the focus is placed on the source adjunct, instead of on the predicate phrase. The source adjunct 從哈比屯
‘from Hobbiton’ is focused since it is the new information to the predicate 來 ‘come’
which is mentioned in the previous context我知道這傢伙哪裡來的.
(91) a. When I returned, many days ago, I heard the ill news. The tidings had gone far and wide that Gandalf was missing and the horsemen had been seen. It was the Elven-folk of gildor that told me this; and later they told me that you had left your home. (p.227)
b. 我過了很多天之後才回來，卻立刻聽到不好的消息。一切有了很大 的變化，甘道夫失蹤了，這些黑騎士開始出没在附近。是個叫吉爾多 的精靈告訴我這些事情的；稍後，他們告訴我你已經離開了老家...」
(p.258)
(92) a. I wonder where he comes from....’I know where he comes from. It’s from Hobbiton that this here black rider comes, unless there’s more than one. And I know where he’s going too. (p.100)’
b.「請容我插嘴，」山姆突然道：「我知道這傢伙哪裡來的。除非這樣
的騎士不只一名，否則他一定是從哈比屯來的，我還知道他要到哪 裡去。」(p.118)
These examples show that information structure alone cannot adequately account for its focus. Instead, we have to resort to information properties to determine its focus.
As we can see, the property of stress-focused sentence not only corresponds to Lambrecht’s (2001) argument focus, but also accounts for the occurrence of shi...(de) in Chinese. Most of all, it can be used to distinguish the ambiguous constituents between subject focus and sentence focus, as in (91), and between adjunct focus and predicate focus, as in (88), (89), (90), and (92).