Cover not available
Part of
Inquiries in Hispanic Linguistics: From theory to empirical evidence
Edited by Alejandro Cuza, Lori Czerwionka and Daniel Olson
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 12] 2016
► pp. 1–20

Towards a theory of assertion structure

Higher and lower focus in Colombian Spanish

 | Rutgers University
This paper argues for a bi-clausal analysis of clefts related to an assertion structure with a presupposition and an assertion. It draws evidence from two constructions in Colombian Spanish. One structure involves a focalizing copular verb that occurs low in the clausal structure, and the other involves an expletive, demonstrative-like element that occurs in complementary distribution with the copular verb. The distributional differences result from combining syntactic requirements and assertion structure: the copular verb can only merge below tense because it must be c-commanded by tense, the expletive can only merge above T. Both constructions interact with nuclear-stress assignment to yield different assertion structures: the copular construction allows for narrow focus, whereas the expletive construction typically results in broad focus.
Keywords: Assertion structure, Colombian Spanish, Focus, Optional expletives
Published online: 1 November 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.12.01cam
References (45)
References
Akmajian, A. (1970). Aspects of the grammar of focus in English. Unpublished PhD dissertation. MIT.Google Scholar
Albor, H.R. (1986). Uso e interpretación de ser en construcciones galicadas y en él necesita es descansar. Thesaurus, XLI, 173–186.Google Scholar
Bartra-Kaufmann, A. (2012). Recycled neuter expletive pronouns and the nature of the left periphery: Ell and relatives. Catalan Journal of Linguistics, 10, 185–219.Google Scholar
Bošković, Z. (1997). Pseudoclefts. Studia Linguistica, 51, 235–277. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bosque, I. (1999). Sobre la estructura sintáctica de una construcción focalizadora. In Homenaje a D. Ambrosio Rabanales (pp. 207–231). Santiago de Chile: Universidad de Chile.Google Scholar
Bullock, B.E., & Toribio, A.J. (2009). Reconsidering dominican spanish: Data from the rural Cibao. Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, 7, 49–73.Google Scholar
Camacho, J. (2006). In situ focus in Caribbean Spanish: Towards a unified account of focus. In N. Sagarra & A.J. Toribio (Eds.), Selected Proceedings of the 9th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (pp. 13–23). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
. (2013). Null subjects. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carrilho, E. (2005). Expletive ele in European Portuguese dialects. Unpublished PhD dissertation. University of Lisbon.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1971). Deep structure, surface structure and semantic interpretation. In D. Steimberg & L. Jakobovits (Eds.), Semantics: An interdisciplinary reader in philosophy, linguistics and psychology. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
. (1976). Conditions on rules of grammar. Linguistic Analysis, 3, 303–351.Google Scholar
Curnow, T., & Travis, C.E. (2004). The emphatic es construction of Colombian Spanish. In C. Moskovsky (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2003 Conference of the Australian Linguistics Society (pp. 1–11). Retrieved from <[URL]>Google Scholar
Den Dikken, M., Meinunger, A., & Wilder, C. (2000). Pseudoclefts and ellipsis. Studia Linguistica, 54, 41–89. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grimshaw, J. (2005). Extended projection. In J. Grimshaw (Ed.), Words and structure. Stanford, CA: CSLI.Google Scholar
Heycock, C., & Kroch, A. (1999). Pseudocleft connectedness: Implications for the LF interface level. Linguistic Inquiry, 30, 365–97. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Higgins, R. (1979). The pseudo-cleft construction in English. New York, NY: Garland.Google Scholar
Hinzelin, M.O., & Kaiser, G.A. (2006). Das neutrale pronomen ello im dominikanischen spanisch und die nullsubjekteigenschaft. anhang: Korpus und bibliographie zu “ello” und unpersönlichen konstruktionen (mit subjekt) im spanischen. Arebeitspapier 116, Fachbereich Sprachwissenschaft, Universität Konstanz.Google Scholar
. (2007). El pronombre ello en el léxico del español dominicano. In W. Mihatsch, M. Sokol (Eds.), Language contact and language change in the Caribbean and beyond (pp. 171–188). Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Jackendoff, R. (1972). Semantic interpretation in generative grammar. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Jacobson, P. (1995). On the quantificational force of English free relatives. In E. Bach, E. Jelinek, A. Kratzer & B.H. Partee (Eds.), Quantification in natural languages (pp. 451– 486). Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
Kato, M., & Mioto, C. (2010). Pseudo-clefts and semi-clefts in Portuguese and American Spanish. Paper presented at Romania Nova , Campos do Jordão, Brazil.
Kayne, R. (1989). Null subjects and clitic climbing. In O. Jaeggli & K.J. Safir (Eds.), The Null Subject Parameter (pp. 239–262). Dordrecht: Reidel. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Méndez-Vallejo, C. (2009). Focalizing SER (‘TO BE’) in Colombian Spanish. Unpublished PhD dissertation. Indiana University.Google Scholar
. (2014). Variación sintáctica y focalización: El caso del ser focalizador’. Presented at ALFAL 17 , Jõao Pessoa, Brazil.
Mioto, C. (2012). Reduced pseudoclefts in Caribbean Spanish and in Brazilian Portuguese. In V. Bianchi & C. Chesi (Eds.), Enjoy linguistics! Papers offered to Luigi Rizzi on the occasion of his 60th birthday (pp. 287–302). Siena: CISCL Press.Google Scholar
Molnár, V., & Winkler, S. (2009). Edges and gaps: Contrast at the interfaces. Lingua, 120, 1392–1415. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pesetsky, D., & Torrego, E. (2004). Tense, case and the nature of syntactic categories. In J. Guéron & J. Lecarme (Eds.), The syntax of time (pp. 495–538). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
. (2007). The syntax of valuation and the interpretability of features. In S. Karimi, V. Samiian, & W. Wilkins (Eds.), Phrasal and clausal architecture: Syntactic derivation and interpretation (pp. 262–294). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Raposo, E. & Uriagereka, J. (1990). Long-distance case assignment. Linguistic Inquiry, 21, 505–537.Google Scholar
Schlenker, P. (2003). A plea for monsters. Linguistics and Philosophy, 26, 29–120. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sedano, M. (1988a). Presencia o ausencia de relativo: Explicaciones funcionales. Thesaurus, 49, 491–518.Google Scholar
. (1988b). Yo vivo es en caracas: un cambio lingüístico. In M.R. Hammond & M.C. Resnick (Eds.), Studies in the Caribbean Spanish dialectology (pp. 115–123). Washington DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
. (1990). Hendidas y otras construcciones con ser en el habla de Caracas (Cuadernos del Instituto de Filología Andrés Bello). Caracas: Facultad de Humanidades y Educación, Universidad Central de VenezuelaGoogle Scholar
. (1995). A la que yo escribí fue a maría vs. yo escribí fue a maría: El uso de estas dos estructuras en el español de caracas. Boletín de Lingüística, 9, 51–80.Google Scholar
. (2003a). Más sobre seudohendidas y construcciones con verbo ser focalizador en el habla de caracas. In F. Moreno-Fernández, J. Samper-Padilla, M. Vaquero, M. Gutiérrez-Araus, C. Hernández-Alonso, & F. Gimeno-Menéndez (Eds.), Lengua, varación y contexto: Estudios dedicados a Humberto López Morales (Vol. 2; pp. 823–847). Madrid: Arco Libros. Google Scholar
. (2003b). Seudohendidas y oraciones con verbo ser focalizador en dos corpus del español hablado de Caracas. Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, 1, 175–204.Google Scholar
Sharvit, Y. (1997). A semantic approach to connectedness in specificational pseudoclefts. Ms. University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Silva-Villar, L. (1998). Subject positions and the roles of CP. In A. Schwegler, B. Tranel & M. Uribe-Etxebarria (Eds.), Romance linguistics: Theoretical perspectives (pp. 247 – 270). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Toribio, A.J. (1992). Proper government in Spanish subject relativization. Probus: International Journal of Latin and Romance Linguistics, 4, 291–304. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. (2002). Focus on clefts in Dominican Spanish. In J. Lee, K. Geeslin, & J. Clements (Eds.), Structure, meaning, and acquisition in Spanish (pp. 130–146) Somerset, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Uriagereka, J. (1995). An F position in western romance. In K. Kiss (Ed.), Discourse configurational languages (pp. 153–175). Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
. (2004). A peripheral pleonastic in Western Iberian. Ms. University of Maryland.Google Scholar
. (2005). Iberian pleonasm. Ms. University of Maryland.Google Scholar
Zubizarreta, M.L. (1998). Prosody, focus, and word order. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
. (2012). On the grammaticalization of assertion structure: a view from Spanish. Ms. University of Southern California.Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Booth, Hannah & Kim A. Groothuis
2024. Discourse-related expletives: Challenges and opportunities. Open Linguistics 10:1 DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 18 november 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.