We used three experiments showing that Mandarin shi…(de) clefts encode exhaustivity as part of its presupposition, which is different from zhiyou “only” and answers to constituent questions. We also show that 6-year-olds have problem interpreting this exhaustive meaning in clefts, but not the other exhaustivity-inferring constructions (collaborative work with Liu Ying).

Output: NASSLLI/ESSLLI2016,Glow-in-Asia2017, NELS47