Abstract
This article deals with an indicative-modal asymmetry in Chinese, where a variety of specificity effects are found in fronted object indefinites. To provide a coherent solution under the cartographic approach (Rizzi 1997, Cinque 1999), we propose that there are two types of landing sites for Chinese object fronting: The outer focus position is in the left periphery, and occupied by a specific nominal. By contrast, the inner focus position is located in the peripheral area around vP (a clause-internal focus in Belletti's 2004 terms), where a bare NP is interpreted as specific in realis sentences, but non-specific in irrealis sentences. It is argued that this object specificity follows from a dynamic mechanism of syntax-semantics mapping encoded in the Extended Mapping Hypothesis, and should be treated on a par with Chinese subject specificity. Along this line, we are able to lay out the "topography" of Chinese foci based on the inner-outer dichotomy, and provide a solution to the indicative-modal asymmetry through the interaction between syntactic predication and aspectual quantification. © Walter de Gruyter.