Cleft Structures
Editors
The phenomenon of clefts is beyond doubt a golden oldie. It has captivated linguists of different disciplines for decades. The fascination arises from the unique syntax of clefts in interaction with their pragmatic and semantic interpretation. Clefts structure sentences according to the information state of the constituents contained in them. They are special as they exhibit a rather uncommon syntactic form to achieve the separation of the prominent part, either focal or topical, from the background of the clause. Despite the long-lasting interest in clefts, linguists have not yet come to an agreement on many basic questions. The articles contained in this volume address these issues from new theoretical and empirical perspectives. Based on data from about 50 languages from all over the world, this volume presents new arguments for the proper derivation of clefts, and contributes to the ongoing debate on the information-structural impact of cleft structures. Theoretically, it combines modern syntactic theorizing with investigations at the interface between grammar and information-structure.
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 208] 2013. viii, 348 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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List of contributors | pp. vii–viii
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IntroductionKatharina Hartmann and Tonjes Veenstra | pp. 1–32
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Part I. Specificational/predicational clefts
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Predication and specification in the syntax of cleft sentencesMarcel den Dikken | pp. 35–70
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Wh-clefts and verb-initial word order in Austronesian languagesEdith Aldridge | pp. 71–96
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(Pseudo)clefts at the syntax-prosody-discourse interfaceMara Frascarelli and Francesca Ramaglia | pp. 97–138
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Part II. Monoclausal/biclausal analyses
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Clefts in Durban ZuluLisa Lai-Shen Cheng and Laura J. Downing | pp. 141–164
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The cleft pronoun and cleft clause in EnglishMatthew Reeve | pp. 165–186
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The morphosyntax of wolof clefts: Structure and movementHarold Torrence | pp. 187–224
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Part III. The focus potential of clefts
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Multiple focus and cleft sentencesNancy Hedberg | pp. 227–250
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Recursion of FocP in MalayalamRosmin Mathew | pp. 251–268
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Multiple Wh-questions and the cleft construction in MalayalamPunnapurath Madhavan | pp. 269–284
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Cleft partitionings in Japanese, Burmese and ChineseDaniel Hole and Malte Zimmermann | pp. 285–318
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Italian clefts and the licensing of infinitival subject relativesPetra Sleeman | pp. 319–342
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Language index | pp. 343–344
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Subject index | pp. 345–348
“Cleft constructions are ubiquitous in languages, and their analysis is relevant to just about every aspect of theoretical linguistic investigation from prosody to pragmatics. This book discusses an impressive array of cleft constructions in different languages and language families: Autronesian (Seediq, Niuean, Tagalog, Malagasy, Fijian), Bantu (Zulu), Dravidian (Malayalam), Indo-European (Italian, French, English, Dutch), Japonic/Altaic (Japanese), Niger-Congo (Wolof), and Sino-Tibetan (Burmese, Mandarin). Hartmann and Veenstra’s comprehensive and enlightening introduction is lucid and thorough, emphasizing all the myriad respects in which cleft constructions are challenging for theoretical analysis, including typological variation in structure, prosody, interpretation and use. Almost all the chapters in the book undertake comparative analysis and together, all the chapters introduce a wealth of new data for consideration. I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in linguistic interfaces and analysis.”
Dr. Rochemont, University of British Colombia, Canada
Cited by
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Christopher, Nadezda
2020. Chapter 3. Kazakh particle ğoj as an existential operator. In Information-Structural Perspectives on Discourse Particles [Studies in Language Companion Series, 213], ► pp. 72 ff.
Cúneo, Paola
DESTRUEL, EMILIE & BRYAN DONALDSON
Güldemann, Tom, Sabine Zerbian & Malte Zimmermann
Hartmann, Katharina
Kandybowicz, Jason, Bertille Baron Obi, Philip T. Duncan & Hironori Katsuda
Palancar, Enrique L. & Martine Vanhove
VAN TIEL, BOB & MIKHAIL KISSINE
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 16 april 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.
Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CFK: Grammar, syntax
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General