Cover not available
Part of
Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 14: Selected papers from the 46th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL), Stony Brook, NY
Edited by Lori Repetti and Francisco Ordóñez
[Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 14] 2018
► pp. 69–84

Chapter 5
Ma non era rosso? (But wasn’t it red?)

On counter-expectational questions in Italian

| Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
In this article I investigate the properties of counter-expectational surprise yes-no questions in Italian, introduced by the adversative particle ma. These structures minimally contrast with surprise exclamations. I provide an analysis of the left periphery able to explain the observations concerning the distribution of ma, for instance that it must precede all other items in the clause and cannot be embedded. I propose that ma is a discourse head, projecting a syntactic structure analogous to that of normal syntactic heads. Discourse heads, however, connect separate sentences, which can also be uttered by different speakers, provided that they belong to the same context. I also add some brief remarks on the so-called expletive negation appearing in these cases.
Keywords: surprise questions, counter-expectational discourse, left periphery, expletive negation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The data
    • Scenario I
    • Scenario II
  • 3.The imperfect
    • Scenario III
    • Scenario IV
  • 4.The distribution and properties of the particle ma in counter-expectational contexts
    • 4.1Generalities
    • 4.2The co-occurrence of ma with clitic left dislocation, focus and hanging topic
  • 5.Sentence and discourse
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 13 August 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/rllt.14.05gio
References (26)
References
Belletti, Adriana (ed.). 2004. Structures and Beyond. The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, 3. Oxford University Press: New York.Google Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo. 1990. Types of A-bar Dependencies. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
. 2008. “Two Types of Nonrestrictive Relative Clauses.” In Empirical Issues in Syntax and Semantics 7, ed. by Olivier Bonami, and Patricia Cabredo Hofherr, 99–137. Paris: CSSP.Google Scholar
Delfitto, Denis. 2004. “On the logical form of imperfective aspect.” In The syntax of time, ed. by Jacqueline Guéron, and Alexander Lecarme, 115–142. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,Google Scholar
Delfitto, Denis, and Pier Marco Bertinetto. 1995. “A case study in the interaction of aspect and actionality: The imperfect in Italian.” Temporal Reference, Aspect and Actionality, vol. I, Semantic and Syntactic Perspectives, ed. by Pier Marco Bertinetto, Valentina Bianchi, James Higginbotham, and Mario Squartini, 125–142. Turin: Rosenberg & Sellier.Google Scholar
Delfitto, Denis, and Gaetano Fiorin. 2014a. “Exclamatives: Issues of syntax, logical form and interpretation.” Lingua 152, 1–20.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2014b. “Negation in Exclamatives.” Studia Linguistica 68 (3): 284–327.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Frascarelli, Mara. 2000. The Syntax-Phonology Interface in Focus and Topic Constructions in Italian. Dordrecht: Kluwer.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Giorgi, Alessandra. 2010. About the Speaker: Towards a Syntax of Indexicality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
. 2014. “ Prosodic Signals as Syntactic Formatives in the Left Periphery .” In On Peripheries: Exploring Clause Initial and Clause Final Positions, ed. by Anna Cardinaletti, Guglielmo Cinque, and Yoshio Endo, 161–188. Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo.Google Scholar
. 2015. “Discourse and the syntax of the left periphery: clitic left dislocation and hanging topic.” In Discourse-oriented syntax, ed. by Josef Bayer, Roland Hinterhölzl, and Andreas Trotzke, 229–250. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2016a. “Integrated Parentheticals in Quotations and Free Indirect Discourse.” In Indirect Reports and Pragmatics, ed. by Alessandro Capone, Ferenc Kiefer, and Franco Lo Piparo, 471–488. New York: Springer.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2016b. “On the temporal interpretation of certain surprise questions.” SpringerPlus 5 (1): 1390.DOI logo.Google Scholar
Giorgi, Alessandra, and Fabio Pianesi. 1997. Tense and Aspect: From semantics to Morphosyntax. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
. 2001. “Imperfect Dreams. The temporal dependencies of fictional predicates.” Probus 13: 31–68.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ippolito, Michela. 2000. “Imperfect modality.” Paper presented at the International Round Table The Syntax of Tense and Aspect, Universitè de Paris VII, France.
Lepschy, Giulio. 1978. The Italian Language Today. London: Hutchinson.Google Scholar
Munaro, Nicola, and Hans-Georg Obenauer. 2002. “On the semantic widening of underspecified wh-elements.” In Current Issues in Generative Grammar, ed. by Manuel Leonetti, Olga Fernández Soriano, and Victoria Escandell Vidal, 165–194. Madrid: Universidad de Alcalá de Henares / UNED / Universidad Autonoma de Madrid.Google Scholar
Obenauer, Hans-Georg. 2004. “Nonstandard wh-questions and alternative checkers in Pagotto.” In Syntax and Semantics of the Left Periphery, ed. by Horst Lohnstein, and Susanne Trissler, 343–384. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Portner, Paul, and Raffaella Zanuttini. 2003. “Exclamative Clauses: At the Syntax-Semantic Interface.” Language 79 (1): 39–81.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rizzi, Luigi. 1997. “The fine structure of the left periphery.” In Elements of Grammar, ed. by Liliane Haegeman, 281–337. Dordrecht: Kluwer.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(ed.). 2004. The Structure of IP and CP. The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, 2. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schlenker, Philippe. 2015. “Gesture Projection and Cosuppositions.” Ms., Institut Jean-Nicod and New York University.Google Scholar
Selkirk, Lisa. 2005. “Comments on intonational phrasing.” In Prosodies: With Special Reference to Iberian, ed. by Sonia Frota, Marina Cláudia Vigário, and Maria João Freitas, 11–58. Berlin, Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Vet, Co. 1983. From tense to modality, In Studies in Modeltheoretic Semantics, ed. by Alice G. B. Ter Meulen, 192–207. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Vicente, Luis. 2010. “On the syntax of adversative coordination.” Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 28 (2): 381–415.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (8)

Cited by eight other publications

Fiorini, Matteo
2024. Biased interrogatives in Camuno. Open Linguistics 10:1 DOI logo
Giorgi, Alessandra & Erika Petrocchi
2024. A cross-cultural analysis of the gestural pattern of surprise and surprise-disapproval questions. Intercultural Pragmatics 21:3 ► pp. 307 ff. DOI logo
Giorgi, Alessandra
2023. Pragmatics in the Minimalist framework. Evolutionary Linguistic Theory 5:2 ► pp. 103 ff. DOI logo
Trotzke, Andreas
2023. Non-Canonical Questions, DOI logo
Cruschina, Silvio & Valentina Bianchi
2022. Variation at the Syntax–Pragmatics Interface: Discourse Particles in Questions. Languages 7:3 ► pp. 183 ff. DOI logo
Kiss, Angelika
2022. The Hungarian question tag mi? As characterized by dependent and independent commitments. Acta Linguistica Academica 69:2 ► pp. 206 ff. DOI logo
Trotzke, Andreas & Anna Czypionka
2022. The pragmatics of surprise-disapproval questions: An empirical study. Linguistics Vanguard 8:s2 ► pp. 239 ff. DOI logo
Cognola, Federica & Silvio Cruschina
2021. Between Time and Discourse A Syntactic Analysis of Italianpoi. Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie occidentale :55 DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 26 june 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.