Cover not available
Part of
Boundaries, Phases and Interfaces: Case studies in honor of Violeta Demonte
Edited by Olga Fernández-Soriano, Elena Castroviejo Miró and Isabel Pérez-Jiménez
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 239] 2017
► pp. 223–254

Subextraction at the Discourse-Grammar interface

A featural approach to island effects

| University of Roma Tre
| University of Seville

In this paper we carry out an interface investigation of subject islands in Italian and Spanish, in which subextraction in the form of focus fronting is connected with the type of Focus implemented by the subextracted PP (Corrective vs. Mirative) and the D-properties of the subextraction site. Adopting a featural approach, we claim that subjects are not ‘absolute’ islands and variation is not idiosyncratic: subextraction is possible in the two languages under examination provided specific properties are met in the relevant D-domain and depending on the information-structural properties of the subextracted PP. More precisely, subextraction of a Corrective Focus in Italian is fully accepted from [−spec] DPs, whereas Spanish needs a [−def] feature in the same context. Subextraction to obtain a mirative interpretation, on the other hand, is only (marginally) allowed from [+def, −spec] DPs: this is attributed to the compatibility between D-features and the discourse-semantics properties of a Mirative Focus.

Keywords: focus fronting, subextraction, specificity, Aboutness-shift Topic, interfaces
Article outline
  • 1.Basic assumptions and working hypotheses
    • 1.1Specificity and definiteness
    • 1.2Focus subextraction
    • 1.3The subextraction site
  • 2.Islands and specificity effects: Cross-linguistic variation
  • 3.Data and preliminary results: The interpretive analysis
    • 3.1Subextraction from a [−spec] preverbal/postverbal DP
    • 3.2Subextraction from a [+spec] DP
  • 4.Prosodic cues to discourse interpretation: The interface analysis
    • 4.1CF subextraction from a [−spec]DP: Intonational contour
    • 4.2CF subextraction from a [+spec] DP: Intonational contour
    • 4.3MF subextraction from a [+spec]DP: Intonational contour
  • 5.Conclusive remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 14 June 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.239.11fra
References
Alexiadou, Artemis & Anagnostopoulou, Elena
1998 Parametrizing AGR: Word order, V-Movement and EPP checking. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 16: 491–539. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Barbosa, Pilar
1995 Null Subjects. PhD dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Bianchi, Valentina
2012 Focus fronting and the syntax-semantics interface. Ms, University of Siena.Google Scholar
Bianchi, Valentina & Bocci, Giuliano
2012 Should I stay or should I go? Optional focus movement in Italian. In Empirical Issues in Syntax and Semantics 9, Christopher Piñón (ed.), 1–16. [URL] Google Scholar
Bianchi, Valentina & Chesi, Cristiano
2012 Subject islands and the Subject Criterion. In Enjoy Linguistics! Papers Offered to Luigi Rizzi’s on the Occasion of his 60th Birthday, Valentina Bianchi & Cristiano Chesi (eds), 25–53. Siena: CISCL Press. [URL] Google Scholar
2014 Subject islands, reconstruction, and the flow of the computation. Linguistic Inquiry 45(4): 525–569. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bianchi, Valentina, Chesi, Cristiano & Cruschina, Silvio
2015 Focus fronting and its implicatures. In Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 2013: Selected Papers from Going Romance 2013 [Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 8], Enoch Aboh, Jeannette Schaeffer & Petra Sleeman (eds), 1–20. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bianchi, Valentina & Frascarelli, Mara
2010 Is Topic a root phenomenon? Iberia 2(1): 43–88.Google Scholar
Boecks, Cedric
2012 Syntactic Islands. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bošković, Željko
2008 On successive cyclic movement and the freezing effect of feature checking. In Sounds of Silence: Empty Elements in Syntax and Phonology, Jutta Hartmann, Veronika Hegedüs, & Henk van Riemsdijk (eds), 195–233. Amsterdam: Elsevier North Holland.Google Scholar
To appear. On NPs and clauses and the forthcoming Linguistic Inquiry paper getting really edgy. Linguistic Inquiry.
Cardinaletti, Anna
1997 Subjects and clause structure. In The New Comparative Syntax, Liliane Haegeman (ed.), 33-63. London: Longman.Google Scholar
2004 Toward a cartography of subject positions. In The Structure of CP and IP. The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, Vol. 2, Luigi Rizzi (ed.), 115-165. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Chaves, Rui
2013 An expectation-based account of subject islands and parasitism. Journal of Linguistics 49 (2): 285–327. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, Noam
1973 Conditions on transformations. In A Festschrift for Morris Halle, Stephen R. Anderson & Paul Kiparsky (eds), 232–286. New York NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
2008 On phases. In Foundational Issues in Linguistic Theory. Essays in Honor of Jean-Roger Vergnaud, Robert Freidin, Carlos P. Otero & Maria Luisa Zubizarreta (eds), 133–166. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cinque, Gugliemo
1990 Types of A’-Dependencies. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Cruschina, Silvio
2012 Discourse-related Features and Functional Projections. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
DeLancey, Scott
1997 Mirativity: The grammatical marking of unexpected information. Linguistic Typology 1: 33–52. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Diesing, Molly
1992 Indefinites. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Enç, Murvet
1991 The semantics of specificity. Linguistic Inquiry 22: 1–26.Google Scholar
Erteschik-Shir, Nomi
2006 What’s what? In Gradience in Grammar, Gisbert Fanselow, Caroline Féry, Ralf Vogel & Matthias Schlesewsky (eds), 317–335. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Face, Timothy L
2002 Intonational Marking of Contrastive Focus in Madrid Spanish. Munich: Lincom.Google Scholar
Frascarelli, Mara
2000 The Syntax-Phonology Interface in Focus and Topic Constructions in Italian [Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 50]. Dordrecht: Kluwer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2003 Topicalizzazione e ripresa clitica. Analisi sincronica, confronto diacronico e considerazioni tipologiche. In Italia Linguistica Anno Mille, Italia Linguistica Anno Duemila, Nicoletta Maraschio & Teresa Poggi Salani (eds), 547–562. Roma: Bulzoni.Google Scholar
2004 Dislocation, Clitic Resumption and Minimality: A Comparative Analysis of Left and Right Topic Constructions in Italian. In Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 2002, Bok-Bennema Reineke, Bart Hollebrandse, Brigitte Kampers-Manhe & Petra Sleeman (eds.), 99-118. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2007 Subjects, topics and the interpretation of referential pro. An interface approach to the linking of (null) pronouns. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 25: 691–734. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2008 The Fine Structure of the Topic Field. In The Bantu-Romance Connection. A Comparative Investigation of Verbal Agreement, DPs, and Information Structure, Cécile De Cat & Katherine Demuth (eds), 261-292. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
In press. The interpretation of pro in consistent and partial NS languages: A comparative interface analysis. In Understanding Pro-Drop, Federica Cognola and Jan Casalicchio (eds) Understanding Null Subjects. A Synchronic and Diachronic Perspective Oxford OUP
Frascarelli, Mara & Hinterhölzl, Roland
2007 Types of topics in German and Italian. In On Information Structure, Meaning and Form [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 100], Kerstin Schwabe & Susanne Winkler (eds), 87–116. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Frascarelli, Mara & Ramaglia, Francesca
2013a ‘Phasing’ contrast at the interfaces: A feature-compositional approach to Topics. In Information Structure and Agreement [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 197], Victoria Camacho-Taboada, Ángel L. Jiménez-Fernández, Javier Martín-González & Mariano Reyes-Tejedor (eds), 55–81. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2013b Optionality in contrast. Paper presented at the XXXIX Incontro di Grammatica Generativa . Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, February 21–23.
Frascarelli, Mara & Jiménez-Fernández, Ángel L
2013 Focus fronting and specificity effects at the discourse-grammar interface. Paper presented at the 2nd Cambridge Comparative Syntax Conference (CamCos2) . University of Cambridge, 9–11 May.
Gallego, Ángel J
2011 Successive cyclicity, phases, and CED effects. Studia Linguistica 65(1): 32–69. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gallego, Ángel J. & Uriagereka, Juan
2007 Conditions on sub-extraction. In Coreference, Modality, and Focus [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 111], Luis Eguren & Olga Fernández Soriano (eds), 45–70. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Giusti, Giuliana
1997 The categorial status of determiners. In The New Comparative Syntax, Liliane Haegeman (ed.), 95–123. Harlow: Addison Wesley Longman.Google Scholar
Greco, Ciro, Marrelli, Marco & Haegeman, Liliane
2014 The opacity of subjects in Italian: An experimental investigation on the role of external-syntax factors in cumulative effects. Ms, Ghent University.Google Scholar
Gussenhoven, Carlos
2007 Types of focus in English. In Topic and Focus: Cross-Linguistic Perspectives on Meaning and Intonation, Chung-Min Lee, Matthew Gordon & Daniel Büring (eds), 83–100. Dordrecht: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haegeman, Liliane
2012 Adverbial Clauses, Main Clause Phenomena, and the Composition of the Left Periphery. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haegeman, Liliane, Jiménez-Fernández, Ángel L. & Radford, Andrew
2014 Deconstructing the subject condition in terms of cumulative constraint violation. The Linguistic Review 31(1): 73–150. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heim, Irene
1982 The Semantics of Definite and Indefinite Noun Phrases. PhD dissertation, University of Massachusetts Amherst.Google Scholar
Hualde, José I
2003 El modelo métrico y autosegmental. In Teorías de la entonación, Pilar Prieto (ed.), 155–184. Barcelona: Ariel.Google Scholar
Huang, C.-T., James
1982 Logical Relations in Chinese and the Theory of Grammar. PhD dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Ihsane, Tabea & Puskás, Genoveva
2001 Specific is not definite. Generative Grammar in Geneva 2: 39–54.Google Scholar
Jiménez-Fernández, Ángel L
2009 On the composite nature of subject islands: A phase-based approach. SKY Journal of Linguistics 22: 91–138.Google Scholar
2011 On the order of multiple topics and discourse-feature inheritance. Dilbilim Araştırmaları 1: 5–32.Google Scholar
2012 A new look at subject islands: The phasehood of definiteness. Anglica Wratislaviensia 50: 137–170.Google Scholar
2015 Towards a typology of focus: Subject position and microvariation at the discourse-syntax interface. Ampersand: An International Journal of Applied and General Linguistics 2: 49–60. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2015b When focus goes wild: Syntactic positions for information focus. LingBaW (Linguistics Beyond and Within) 1: 119–133.Google Scholar
Jiménez-Fernández, Ángel L. & Miyagawa, Shigeru
2014 A feature-inheritance approach to root phenomena and parametric variation. Lingua 145: 276–302. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Krifka, Manfred
2001 Quantifying into question acts. Natural Language Semantics 9: 1–40. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2007 Basic notions of information structure. In Working Papers of the SFB632 [Interdisciplinary Studies on Information Structure (ISIS) 6], Caroline Féry, Gisbert Fanselow & Manfred Krifka (eds), 13–55. Postdam: University of Potsdam.Google Scholar
Leonetti, Manuel & Escandell-Vidal, Victoria
2009 Fronting and verum-focus in Spanish. In Focus and Background in Romance Languages [Studies in Language Companion Series 112], Andreas Dufter & Daniel Jacob (eds), 155–204. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lohndal Terje
2011 Freezing effects and objects. Journal of Linguistics 47: 163–99. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
López, Luis
2009 A Derivational Syntax for Information Structure. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mahajan, Anoup
1992 The specificity condition and the CED. Linguistic Inquiry 23: 510–516.Google Scholar
Merchant, Jason
2001 The Syntax of Silence. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Miyagawa, Shigeru
2010 Why Agree? Why Move? Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Molnar, Valeria
2006 On different kinds of contrast. In The Architecture of Focus, Valeria Molnár & Susanne Winkler (eds), 197–233. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pierrehumbert, Janet & Julia Hirschberg
1990 The Meaning of Intonational Contours in the Interpretation of Discourse. In Intentions in Communication, Philip. R. Cohen, Jerry Morgan & Martha E. Pollack (eds), 271-311. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Poletto, Cecilia & Jean-Yves Pollock
2004 On the left periphery of some Romance wh-questions. In The Structure of CP and IP. The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, Vol. 2, Luigi Rizzi (ed.), 251-296. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Platzack, Christer
2001 Multiple interfaces. In Cognitive Interfaces. Emile van der Zee & Urpo NikanneConstraints on Linking Cognitive Information, (eds), 21–53. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Quer, Josep
2002 Edging quantifiers. On QP-fronting in Western Romance. In Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 2000 [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 232], Claire Beyssade, Reineke Bok-Bennema, Frank A.C. Drijkoningen & Paola Monachesi (eds), 253–270. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Radford, Andrew
2004 Minimalist Syntax: Exploring the Structure of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reinhart, Tanya
1981 Pragmatics and Linguistics: An Analysis of Sentence Topics. Philosophica 27, 53-94.Google Scholar
Rizzi, Luigi
1997 The fine structure of the left periphery. In Elements of Grammar: Handbook in Generative Syntax, Liliane Haegeman (ed.), 281–337. Dordrecht: Kluwer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2006 On the form of chains: Criterial positions and ECP effects. In Wh-Movement. Moving On, Lisa Lai-Shen Cheng & Norbert Corver (eds), 97–133. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Roberts, Craig
2003 Uniqueness in definite noun phrases. Linguistics and Philosophy 26: 287–350. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ross, John Robert
1967 Constraints on Variables in Syntax. PhD dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Sheehan, Michelle
2006 The EPP and Null Subjects in Romance. PhD dissertation, University of Newcastle.Google Scholar
Suñer, Margarita
1992 Two properties of clitics. In Logical Structure and Linguistic Structure: Cross-linguistic Perspectives, James Huang & Robert May (eds), 233–251 Dordrecht: Reidel. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Villa-García, Julio
2012 Recomplementation and locality of movement in Spanish. Probus 24(2): 257–314.Google Scholar
Willim, Ewa
2000 On the grammar of Polish nominals. In Step by Step. Essays on Minimalist Syntax in Honor of Howard Lasnik, Roger Martin, David Michaels, Juan Uriagereka (eds), 319–346. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Zubizarreta, Maria Luisa
1998 Prosody, Focus and Word Order. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Jiménez Fernández, Ángel Luis
2021. Relativas y Anteposición Negativa en inglés y español. Verba: Anuario Galego de Filoloxía 48 DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 7 september 2023. 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.