金大卫，广东广州人，2016 年毕业于纽约州立大学布法罗分校语言学系，现任职于上海交通大学汉语国际教育中心。研究方向为句法-语义界面、形式语义学、实验语义学。专攻方向包括句法-语义界面下的“局部性限制”现象和“干扰效应”现象。其他研究还包括因果关系的表达、焦点的表达策略及系词的语义等。

陈珺，北京人，2017 年毕业于耶鲁大学语言学系，现任职于德国斯图加特大学语言学系。研究方向为语义-语用界面、实验语义学、博弈语用学。专攻方向包括焦点穷尽性的解读，以及通过对话人的博弈建模和言语行为模型理解语气词和副词的语用信息。

Preface

1 Overview

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Definitions 

1.3 General information

2 Previous Literature 

2.1 The semantics of the copula and its role in focus marking

2.1.1 Higgins, Richard. 1979. 

2.1.2 Mikkelsen, Line. 2005, 2011.

2.1.3 The copula in the cleft constructions 

2.2 Previous works on the cleft construction in Mandarin

Chinese 

2.2.1 Teng, Shou-Hsin. 1979. 

2.2.2 Huang, C-T. James. 1982. 

2.2.3 Zhu, Yao. 1996. 

2.2.4 Li, N Charles & Thompson, Sandra. 1989. 

2.2.5 Cheng, Lisa. 2008. 

2.2.6 Hole, Daniel. 2011. 

2.2.7 von Prince, Kilu. 2012.

2 Copula in Focus Constructions

2.2.8 Zhan, Fangqiong & Sun, Chaofen. 2013. 

2.2.9 Other works 

2.3 Grammaticalization of copulas in historical Chinese

2.3.1 The grammaticalization of the copula wei 

2.3.2 The grammaticalization of the copula shi 

2.3.3 The grammaticalization of the copula xi 

2.3.4 Interim Summary 

3 The copula wei（唯）in Pre-Classical Chinese

3.1 Overview 

3.2 Wei’s non-copular uses 

3.3 The distribution of wei in copular clauses

3.4 The decline of wei’s copular use 

4 The copula shi（是）in Early Medieval Chinese

4.1 The reanalysis of shi into a copula 

4.2 The distribution of shi in copular clauses

4.3 Shi in cleft constructions 

5 The copula xi（系）in Late Medieval Chinese

5.1 The reanalysis of xi into a copula 

5.2 The distribution of xi in copular clauses 

5.3 Xi in cleft constructions 

5.4 Modern day pattern 

5.5 Summary

6 Conclusion

Contents

Sources