VP copying interacting with verum focus

This study investigates the syntax of VP copying by looking at data from Mandarin Chinese. It focuses on VP copying used to express verum focus and presents a two-step syntactic process that involves moving a DP to a topic position, a case of left dislocation, and the remnant movement of the VP to the TopP at the CP domain. As to the phonetic realization of both verb copies, this paper adopts a minimalist Spell-Out framework by Bleaman (2022. Predicate fronting in Yiddish and conditions on multiple copy Spell-Out. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 40(2). 393–424) and Collins and Stabler (2016. A formalization of minimalist syntax. Syntax 19(1). 43–78). The findings in this paper not only contribute to syntactic theory by elucidating syntactic structures and their pragmatic functions, shedding light on the current debate regarding the syntax of VP copying observed in various languages, but also pave the way for further research on the interplay between information structure and syntax in conveying emphasis and focus in Mandarin Chinese.