THE SEMANTIC AND SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS OF FOCUS PARTICLES IN THAI

• Published in: Taiwan Journal of Linguistics Vol. 15; no. 1; pp. 1 - 28
• Main Authors: Tiyanuch Rusawang, Sugunya Ruangjaroon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 台灣 政治大學語言學研究所暨英國語文學系 01.01.2017; 政治大學語言所
• Subjects: focus intervention effects; focus particles; Scopus; subject/object asymmetry in focus marking; THCI; wh arguments/wh adjuncts asymmetry in Thai; 及運用時的作用; 標注主語/賓語的不對稱; 泰語裡形近詞和連詞的不對稱; 關注助詞; wh arguments/wh adjuncts asymmetry in Thai; 關注助詞; 泰語裡形近詞和連詞的不對稱; focus particles; subject/object asymmetry in focus marking; focus intervention effects; 標注主語/賓語的不對稱; 及運用時的作用
• ISSN: 1729-4649
• DOI: 10.6519/TJL.2017.15(1).1

This paper provides the first analysis of focus particles in Thai. Two types of focus particles are introduced: exclusives and additives (scalar and non-scalar additives). The interpretation of these particles invokes a set of alternatives that is relevant to a given context. All of the focus particles obey the adjacency requirement whereby these particles are always adjacent to the focus elements and no scope ambiguity is observed. However, Thai shows subject/object asymmetry with respect to focus marking in which the subject DP focus is only available through the existential construction. There is also asymmetry between wh-arguments and wh-adjuncts in focus intervention effects in Thai as proposed by Kim (2002, 2006). In wh-arguments, the constructions involve wh-clefts as proposed by Ruangjaroon (2005) while wh-adjuncts do not.