Focus-Marking in Chinese and Malay : A Comparative Perspective

Cross-linguistically, there are two devices for grammar to process the focus mark [+FocusJ: the fronting of focused constituents and the insertion of a Focus Mark such as the English 'be' before focused constituents. In this mode of formulation, a comparative study of Focus and Focus-Marking in Chinese and Malay has been conducted. These two languages are similar and different. They are similar in opting for the use of Focus Mark instead of focused constituents movement. They are different in the nature of Focus Mark itself Focus mark is the copular verb SHI A in Chinese, but, as the language simply does not have a copular verb, in Malay two complementary particles KAH/LAK are chosen, and all other contrasts in Focus-Marking between the two languages are demonstrated to follow from the difference in the nature of Focus Mark and some other independently motivated conditions in a modularized theory of grammar.