RT Journal Article SR Electronic(1) A1 Li, Wendan YR 2014 T1 The pragmatics of existential-presentative constructions in Chinese: A discourse-based study JF International Journal of Chinese Linguistics VO 1 IS 2 SP 244 OP 274 DO https://doi.org/10.1075/ijchl.1.2.03li PB John Benjamins SN 2213-8706, AB This study examines the pragmatic and discourse properties of Chinese existential-presentative constructions in written narrative discourse. It demonstrates how the constructions are used in real communicative context. Two sub-types are distinguished: existential constructions and presentative constructions, which differ in verb types, situation types, pragmatic functions, and topic chain patterns they contribute to in discourse organization. Existential constructions designate stative situations; they are topic-comment in nature. In narrative discourse, they actively participate in various types of background descriptions. Presentative constructions introduce new entities into discourse; they designate bounded dynamic events. Some presentative sentences play a foregrounding role by introducing thematically important participants into discourse., UL https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/ijchl.1.2.03li