This book provides a new take on the longstanding puzzle of intervention effects in questions, whereby specific scopal expressions block the interpretation of wh-elements when they occupy a particular position in the semantic representation.Its central argument is that intervention effects are not a homogeneous phenomenon with a uniform underlying structure mapped to a single interpretive mechanism. Rather, they have distinct sources—a distinction that, to date, has not been system...

The current book is the first systematic exposition and analysis of the structure and meaning aspects of the Chinese topic-comment structure. While early analyses of the Chinese topic (and topicalization) phenomena abound, in terms of its theoretical depth and empirical breadth the current book is unparalleled.The phenomenon of topics is a core concept in modern linguistics, and its research significance extends beyond the scope of Chinese linguistics, being a topic of common conce...