Iberia: An International Journal of Theoretical Linguistics - 2010 - Vol. 2 - Nº 1
URI permanente para esta colecciónhttps://hdl.handle.net/11441/72119
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Artículo The syntax and prosody of Focus: the Bantu-Italian connection(Universidad de Sevilla, 2010) Zubizarreta, María LuisaThis paper provides an overview of the literature on the syntax and prosody of focus in some of the Bantu languages (Kimatuumbi, Chimwiini, Chichewa) and in Italian, and it argues that, despite their typological distance, they share much in common with respect to both the syntax and prosody of focus: 1) both language types have an active low Focus position (Belletti 2004, Aboh 2007); and 2) the Focus position triggers the insertion of a strong prosodic boundary, which gives rise to a ‚ripple effect‛ in that phrases to the right of Foc are similarly flanked by a comparable prosodic boundary. The view outlined here argues in favor of a stronger syntax-prosody connection than is generally recognized in current approaches.Artículo A scope theory of contrastive topics(Universidad de Sevilla, 2010) Tomioka, SatoshiContrastive Topics (CTs) in Japanese mimic foci more than topics in many ways. Their prosodic properties are essentially the same as the pattern found with foci, and information structurally, they can correspond to new information. In my previous work (Tomioka 2010), I argued that CTs always involve contrasted speech acts, and this paper presents further evidence for this hypothesis by closely examining how CTs and foci interact. The proposed analysis leads to a new set of questions, one of which is how a focus and a CT are distinguished when they appear simultaneously in one sentence. I argue that a focus is subjected both to the exhaustifying operation at the level of proposition and to the set-generating operation at the level of speech act whereas a CT must be spared from the exhaustification below speech act. The differentiation is achieved via the ‘selective binding’ approach to association with focus proposed by Wold (1996).Artículo Focus in Words with Truth Values(Universidad de Sevilla, 2010) Göksel, AsliThis article analyses the prosodic properties of words with truth values in Turkish. These are morphologically complex items that are finite predicates and that can function as declarative sentences. Researchers who have worked on morphologically complex words have generally taken the view that stress occupies a unique position and that this is a consequence of their morphophonological properties. Here we draw attention to data originally due to Sebüktekin (1984) that challenge this position. This data show that the position of stress is variable in morphologically complex words that are declarative constructions, an outcome which is natural given that prosodic prominence as the phonological correlate of focus is expected to be found in all declaratives. The variation in prominence will thus be argued to be similar to that which occurs in sentences with multiple constituents, and that which reflects the difference between presentational and contrastive focus. The investigation thus brings together two separate lines of research concerning Turkish: the location of stress in morphologically complex words, and the location of pitch in presentational and contrastive focus sentences. The findings will be discussed in the context of their implications for hierarchical views of prosodic prominence and hypotheses concerning focus-alignmentArtículo Is Topic a Root Phenomenon?(Universidad de Sevilla, 2010) Bianchi, Valentina; Frascarelli, MaraIn this paper we discuss the question of whether topics are necessarily restricted to root clauses. From an interface perspective, if topics affect the management of the conversational common ground (Reinhart 1981; Büring 2003; Krifka 2007), we expect them to appear in clauses endowed with illocutive force, implementing a conversational move (§ 2). This conclusion, however, is too general. Adopting the typology of topics by Frascarelli & Hinterhölzl (2007), we show (§ 3) that Familiar topics do not affect the conversational dynamics, and as expected, they are not restricted to root clauses. The English-Romance asymmetry in the distribution of topics (Haegeman 2004) is reduced to the lack of Familiar topics in English, as opposed to Romance. In § 4 we discuss English contrastive topics, showing that they have embedded interpretations in non-asserted complement clauses: we therefore sketch a semantic analysis which does not link contrastive topics to conversational strategies of inquiry. The only type of topic that complies with the root restriction is the Aboutness-Shift topic (§ 5): we suggest that it can be analysed as an independent speech act (cf. Krifka 2001). Finally, in § 6 we discuss «root-like» embedded clauses and offers a tentative solution for their quasi-assertive role.Artículo Information Structuring Begins with the Numeration(Universidad de Sevilla, 2010) Enoch O. AbohThis paper argues for the strong minimalist view that information structure starts in the numeration in the form of discourse-related lexical items which drive the derivation. Though sometimes covert, these discourserelated particles encode features, such as, Interrogative force, Topic, or Focus and display very specific structural behavior indicating that they project in syntax. The analysis further demonstrates that these features are comparable to other optional formal features (e.g., Case, ᶲ-features) that are added arbitrarily when the lexical item enters the numeration.Artículo Information structure and interfaces(2010) Jiménez Fernández, Ángel Luis; Universidad de Sevilla. Departamento de Filología Inglesa (Lengua Inglesa)