Conclusions : Theoretical consequences and implications

Mandarin Chinese appeals to grammatical mechanisms and focus markers accompanied by prosodic stress to express additivity, with prosodic stress in a certain way compensating for its lack of post-verbal focus particles. Scope interpretation of additive adverbs and post-verbal particles in Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese. Major strategies adopted by Mandarin additives and restrictives are focus adverbs, prosodic stress and syntactic construction, while major strategies adopted by Cantonese additives and restrictives are focus adverbs, verbal suffixes, and sentence-final particles. Furthermore, Mandarin appeals more to grammatical mechanisms and focus markers accompanied by prosodic stress to express additivity and restrictiveness. Mandarin Chinese appeals to syntax through grammatical mechanisms or syntactic constructions, and focus markers accompanied by prosodic stress in focus marking, with prosodic stress in a certain way compensating for its lack of post-verbal focus particles.