Journal of Chinese Language Education and Evaluation  (Print ISSN: 3078-283X; Online ISSN: 3104-5030)

Copyright © 2025 by Journal of Chinese Language Education and Evaluation. All rights reserved. 

JCLEE, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2025 ，pp.9-38.

Cleft Sentences with Narrow Focus in Chinese and Italian: A Preliminary Comparative Study

Alessia Iurato[1]

Abstract: This paper compares Chinese shì...de proper clefts (PC) and Italian standard prototypical cleft sentences (IC), i.e., cleft sentences with narrow focus on a single constituent in Chinese and Italian. The study reveals that while syntactic differences are notable, pragmatic contexts of use are similar in both languages. Syntactically, both PCs and ICs share a biclausal structure with a main clause and a cleft subclause. These clefts appear in three main types: subject-focus clefts, adjunct-focus clefts, and object-focus clefts. However, differences arise between the two languages. The most striking difference between PCs and ICs is that the event described in the presupposition of PCs is completed and has reached its endpoint exclusively in the past, whereas this restriction does not apply to ICs. From a pragmatic perspective, the paper shows that both types of clefts can have contrastive and non-contrastive uses.

Keywords: Italian cleft sentences; Chinese shì...de cleft sentences; Narrow focus; Comparative analysis

标题：汉语和意大利语中焦点狭窄的分裂句：初步对比研究

摘要：本文对比分析了汉语的“是……的”分裂句和意大利语的分裂句，即两种语言中针对单一成分的狭窄焦点分裂句。研究表明，尽管两者句法不同，但在语用环境方面具有相似性。从句法角度看，两者均由主句和分裂从句构成，并可分为主语焦点、状语焦点和宾语焦点三类。然而，它们在具体结构上有所不同。例如,“是……的”分裂句的预设事件必须是已完成的，仅限于过去时，而意大利语的分裂句则无此限制。从语用角度看，尽管意大利语分裂句的研究较丰富，而“是……的”分裂句的研究相对较少，本文表明，两者均可用于对比性和非对比性语境。

关键词：意大利语分裂句；汉语是……的分裂句；狭窄焦点；比较分析

[1] Alessia Iurato，威尼斯大学，博士后研究员，研究方向：中文作为第二语言习得、汉语语言学、语料库语言学、对外汉语教学。电邮：alessia.iurato@unive.it。