Restrictive focus particles

This chapter examines subgroup of focus particles, namely restrictive focus particles. It shows that a similar distributional pattern can be observed in restrictive adverbs and post-verbal particles in Mandarin and Cantones and reviews restrictive adverbs in Mandarin, followed by Cantonese restrictive sentence final particles, restrictive verbal suffixes, and Cantonese restrictive adverbs. Restrictive adverbs in Mandarin are found either to demonstrate more polysemous properties or to be more syntactic in nature. Along this line, restrictive adverbs in Mandarin include at least the following: cai ‘only’, jiu ‘only’, and zhi(-you/shi) ‘only(-have/be)’. Mandarin Chinese appeals to focus adverbs accompanied by prosodic stress in expressing focus meaning, with prosodic stress in a certain way compensating for its lack of post-verbal focus particles. Cantonese is richer in focus particles appearing in different syntactic categories, including Cantonese restrictive adverbs corresponding to their Mandarin counterparts, restrictive verbal suffixes, and restrictive sentence-final particles appearing monosyllabically. The chapter concludes with an interim conclusion on additives, restrictives, and focus particles.