Focus Constructions Involving shì in Mandarin Chinese

Recent studies have shown that shì ‘be’… (de) focus sentences in Mandarin Chinese are not structurally uniform. One of the criteria to make distinctions among them is Adjacency Condition, is, only right adjacent element can be focused. The debate has been centered on question why this restriction holds certain types involving but all them. We argue so-called Condition a primary condition regulates distribution different foci; instead, presence or absence adjacency-like precisely indicates existence two syntactic structures foci: one gives rise adjacency effects, whereas other does not. Importantly, our central proposal any constituent falls under c-command domain will chance get reading if prosodically prominent, which naturally for constituents shì. Along line, analyzed as indicator rather than marker itself.