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Part of
East and West of The Pentacrest: Linguistic studies in honor of Paula Kempchinsky
Edited by Timothy Gupton and Elizabeth Gielau
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 33] 2021
► pp. 17–40

Chapter 1
Interpretation of focus in Haitian Creole se-clefts

| University of Iowa
| University of Iowa

While past literature on Haitian Creole focus structures primarily concentrates on predicate clefts (see DeGraff, 1995; Glaude & Zribi-Hertz, 2012; Harbour, 2008; Lefebvre, 1990), few authors use empirical data to justify proposed interpretations of clefts. In this paper, we empirically test which interpretations are available in se-clefts, expanding on previous work on clefts in Haitian Creole and other languages. Our first experiment investigates the influence of predicate gradability (Harbour, 2008) and syntactic structure (Glaude & Zribi-Hertz, 2012) on predicate cleft interpretation, using a felicity judgment task. Prior work on Haitian se-clefts has not discussed the exhaustive inference, an inference conveyed in similar clefts cross-linguistically (see Destruel et al., 2015; Horn, 1981). Our second experiment examines the exhaustivity inference in both predicate and nominal se-clefts, comparing Haitian speakers’ judgments to results from similar clefts in other languages, particularly French, via a forced-choice task adapted from Onea and Beaver (2011).

Keywords: Clefts, Predicate clefts, Focus, Haitian Creole, French, Information structure
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1What is focus?
    • 2.2French and Haitian Creole clefts
    • 2.3The syntax of se-clefts
    • 2.4Past accounts of the interpretation of (se-)clefts
    • 2.5Exhaustivity
  • 3.Research questions and hypotheses
  • 4.Empirical data
    • 4.1Contrast and intensity in predicate clefts
      • 4.1.1Goals
      • 4.1.2Informants
      • 4.1.3Design and materials
      • 4.1.4Procedure
      • 4.1.5Results
    • 4.2Exhaustivity inference
      • 4.2.1Informants
      • 4.2.2Design and materials
      • 4.2.3Procedure
      • 4.2.4Results
  • 5.Discussion and conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 10 May 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.33.01wal
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