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Part of
Hispanic Linguistics: Current issues and new directions
Edited by Alfonso Morales-Front, Michael J. Ferreira, Ronald P. Leow and Cristina Sanz
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 26] 2020
► pp. 183–204

Syntactic and prosodic marking of subject focus in American English and Peninsular Spanish

 | University of Massachusetts Amherst
The aim of the present study is to provide an account of the different strategies, both syntactic and prosodic, employed by American English and Peninsular Spanish speakers in subject focus marking. Data obtained through parallel experimental designs revealed that prosodic marking of focus in-situ is possible in both languages both for informational and contrastive focus. Nonetheless, in the expression of contrastive focus Peninsular Spanish speakers increase the use of clefting while American English speakers exploit prosodic strategies like creaky voice. Differences in the pitch range implemented on focalized subjects were against the posed prediction. This study, nonetheless, contributes to the lacking cross-linguistic comparisons of these two languages and explores the interconnections between syntax and prosody.
Keywords: information structure, syntax, prosody, pragmatics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Information structure and the different types of focus
    • 1.2The realization of focus in English and in Spanish
  • 2.Present study
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Experimental materials
    • 3.2Procedures
    • 3.3Participants
    • 3.4Coding and analysis
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Syntactic strategies
    • 4.2Prosodic marking in-situ
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusions
  • References
Published online: 13 May 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.26.09san
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[no author supplied]
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