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Microparameters in the Grammar of Basque
Edited by Beatriz Fernández and Jon Ortiz de Urbina
[Language Faculty and Beyond 13] 2016
► pp. 243–264

Strategies for argument and adjunct focalization in Basque

| CNRS – IKER, UMR5478
In this chapter, I provide an overview of the different strategies employed for Wh-questions and focalizations across Basque dialects. I argue that a core property of Basque syntax is the fact that both Wh- and focus phrases undergo syntactic (A′-type) displacements, and that they exhibit the main characteristics of syntactic displacements (locality, successive cyclicity, sensitivity to islands, etc.). After analysing the “standard strategy”, which is available across all dialects, I provide an overview of the new in situ Wh-question strategy of the young speakers of Navarro-Labourdin and two different strategies that are employed across different dialects to generate reinforced foci: the highly contrastive rightward focus constructions (specific to Southern dialects, and particularly common in High Navarrese), and the ‘reinforced movement’ strategy of Navarro-Labourdin (a Northern variety). I finish with a brief description of some other constructions involving foci: the mirative focus constructions of substandard Basque, and the dialectal distribution of different types of split interrogatives.
Keywords: focus, left periphery, wh in situ, Wh-movement
Published online: 9 September 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lfab.13.09iru
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