The combination of strict scalar and exclusive components of focus particles has been considered to be exceptional and rare in the literature. In this study, we identify and analyze a frequently used multi-dimensional focus particle pianpian 偏偏 in Mandarin Chinese and claim that it is a strictly scalar exclusive focus particle (which accordingly show evaluative properties). The analysis is based on data from CCL corpus. Different from English only, the scalar feature of pianpian is non-optional and does not depend on the lexical specification of the focus. Furthermore, the negation of the more expected/positive alternatives by pianpian gives rise to interesting interactions with surprisal. modality and speaker-orientedness.
展开▼
