Contemporary Foreign Languages Studies ›› 2014, Vol. 14 ›› Issue (03): 15-19.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1674-8921.2014.03.004

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A Functional-syntactic Analysis of the Token-value Configuration: A Case Study of “shui shi NP?” and “NP shi shui?”

WANG Yao, LI Jingna   

  • Online:2014-03-28 Published:2020-07-25

Abstract: As the description of the relational clause, the Token-Value configuration is mainly defined in a semantic sense, based on the human understanding of the world experience. This paper, based on the analysis of the specific linguistic facts, finds out that different syntactic explanation of the clause may result from the different organization among the Token-Value configuration, the Identified-Identifier structure and the Information structure by means of a case study of the difference between the two identifying clauses “shui shi NP?” and “NP shi shui?”. Meanwhile, the Token-Value configuration, as the syntactic organization of semantic representation, expresses the semantic relations such as presupposition and implicature. This study indicates the probability of the employment of this configuration in the analysis of relational clauses, and sheds some light on the essence of relational clauses as well as the representational function of the language.

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