Chapter published in:
Focus Realization in Romance and Beyond
Edited by Marco García García and Melanie Uth
[Studies in Language Companion Series 201] 2018
► pp. 71–98

Chapter 3
Focus realization at the prosody-syntax interface

Yucatecan Spanish opposed to Standard Mexican Spanish

| University of Cologne
This article investigates the prosodic and syntactic realization of broad and narrow contrastive focus in Yucatecan Spanish compared to standard Mexican Spanish. Based on data from two production experiments and one acceptability judgment test, it is suggested that Yucatecan Spanish is diametrically opposed to standard Mexican Spanish in this domain of syntactic-prosodic realization of Information Structure. Due to the interrelatedness and the general nature of the differences, Yucatecan Spanish is argued to instantiate a different type of language compared to standard (Mexican) Spanish in this regard. Finally, it is argued that this typological particularity is probably to be traced back to the variety’s long standing and intensive contact with Yucatec Maya.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data base and methodology
  • 3.Contrastive focalization in Yucatecan Spanish compared to standard Mexican Spanish
    • 3.1Word order
    • 3.2Pitch accents
  • 4.Syntax-prosody interface
  • 5.Language contact
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 28 November 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.201.03uth
References
Barnes, Hilay & Michnowicz, Jim
2013 A sociolinguistic analysis of prenuclear peak alignment in Yucatan Spanish. In Selected Proceedings of the 15th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, Chad Howe, Sarah E. Blackwell & Margaret Lubbers Quesada (eds), 221–235. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Barrera Vásquez, Alfredo
1977 El idioma español en Yucatán. Encicl. Yucatanense VI: 341–375.Google Scholar
Bosque, Ignacio & Gutiérrez-Rexach, Javier
2009 Fundamentos de sintaxis formal. Madrid: Akal.Google Scholar
de-la-Mota, Carme, Martín Butragueño, Pedro & Prieto, Pilar
2010 Mexican Spanish Intonation. In Transcription of Intonation of the Spanish language, Pilar Prieto & Paola Roseano (eds), 319–350. Munich: Lincom.Google Scholar
Face, Timothy
2003 Intonation in Spanish declaratives: Differences between lab speech and spontaneous speech. Catalan Journal of Linguistics 2: 115–131.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Frazier, Melissa
2012 From stress to tone: Loanwords in Yucatec Maya. Paper presented at the SSILA Annual Meeting in Portland, 6 January.
Gabriel, Christoph
2007 Fokus im Spannungsfeld von Phonologie und Syntax: Eine Studie zum Spanischen. Frankfurt: Vervuert.Google Scholar
2010 On focus, prosody, and word order in Argentinean Spanish: A minimalist OT account. Revista Virtual de Estudos da Linguagem – ReVEL Special edition n. 4: 183–222.Google Scholar
Grice, Martine, Baumann, Stefan & Jagdfeld, Nils
2009 Tonal association and derived nuclear accents. The case of downstepping contours in German. Lingua 119: 881–905.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Grice, Martine & Uth, Melanie
2015 Early high pitch and contrastive focus in Yucatecan Spanish. Poster presentation at PaPE, 29 June, Cambridge, UK.Google Scholar
Gussenhoven, Carlos & Teeuw, Renske
2008 A moraic and a syllabic H tone in Yucatec Maya. In Fonología Instrumental: Patrones Fónicos y Variación Lingüística, Esther Herrera & Pedro Martín Butragueño (eds), 49–72. México: Colegio de México.Google Scholar
Gutiérrez Bravo, Rodrigo
2006 Structural Markedness and Syntactic Structure: A Study of Word Order and the Left-periphery in Mexican Spanish. New York NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
2015 El foco de verbo en maya yucateco. In Nuevos estudios de teoría de optimidad, Rodrigo Gutiérrez Bravo, Francisco Arellanes Arellanes & Mario Chávez Peón Herrero (eds), 17–48. Mexico City: El Colegio de México.Google Scholar
Gutiérrez Bravo, Rodrigo, Sobrino, Martín & Uth, Melanie
2018 Contrastive focus in Yucatecan Spanish. In The Syntactic Variation of Spanish Dialects, Ángel Gallego (ed.), 275–296. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Heidinger, Steffen
2018 Acceptability and frequency in Spanish focus marking. In Focus Realization in Romance and Beyond [Studies in Language Companion Series 201], Marco García García & Melanie Uth (eds). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (this volume)CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2014 Fronting and contrastively focused secondary predicates in Spanish. In Left Sentence Peripheries in Spanish: Diachronic, Variationist and Comparative Perspectives [Studies IN Language Companion Series 112], Andreas Dufter & Álvaro S. de Octavio Toledo (eds), 125–153. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Kim, Sahyang & Avelino, Heriberto
2003 An intonational study of focus and word order variation in Mexican Spanish. In La tonia: Dimensiones fonéticas y fonológicas, Esther Herrera & Pedro M. Butragueño (eds), 357–374. México DF: El Colegio de México.Google Scholar
Kügler, Frank & Skopeteas, Stavros
2006 Interaction of lexical tone and information structure in Yucatec Maya. In Proc. 2nd International Symposium on Tonal Aspects of Languages, La Rochelle, 83–88.Google Scholar
Lope Blanch, Juan M.
1987 Estudios sobre el espanol de Yucatán. Mexico DF: Instituto de Investigaciones Filológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.Google Scholar
Martín Butragueño, Pedro
2004 Configuraciones circunflejas en la entonación del español mexicano. Revista de Filología Española 48(2): 347–373.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mediz Bolio, Antonio
1951 Interinfluencia del maya con el español de Yucatán. Mérida: Zamná.Google Scholar
Michnowicz, Jim
2009 Intercovalic voiced stops in Yucatan Spanish: A case of contact-induced language change? In Spanish in the United States and Other Contact Environments: Sociolinguistics, Ideology and Pedagogy, Manel Lacorte & Jennifer Leeman (eds), 67–84. Madrid: Iberoamericana; Frankfurt: Vervuert.Google Scholar
2011 The standardization of Yucatan Spanish: Family case studies in Izamal and Mérida. In Selected Proceedings of the 14th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, Kimberly Geeslin & Manuel Díaz-Campos (eds), 102–115. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Rodríguez Ramalle, Teresa M.
2005 Manual de sintaxis del español. Madrid: Castalia.Google Scholar
Sosa, Juan M.
1999 La entonación del español. Madrid: Cátedra.Google Scholar
Suárez Molina, Victor M.
1996 El español que se habla en Yucatán. Mérida: Universidad de Yucatán.Google Scholar
Uth, Melanie
In press. Traces of language contact in intonation. The case of Yucatecan Spanish. In Prosodic Issues in Language Contact Situations, Yolanda Congosto ed. Special issue of Spanish in Context
Verhoeven, Elisabeth & Skopeteas, Stavros
2015 Licensing focus constructions in Yucatec Maya. International Journal of American Linguistics 81(1): 1–40.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Zubizarreta, Maria L.
1999 Las funciones informativas: Tema y foco. In Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, Ignacio Bosque & Violeta Demonte (eds), 4215–4244. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe.Google Scholar
1998 Prosody, Focus, and Word Order. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Uth, Melanie & Marco García García
2018.  In Focus Realization in Romance and Beyond [Studies in Language Companion Series, 201], ► pp. 1 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 01 april 2022. 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.