Cover not available
Part of
Focus Realization in Romance and Beyond
Edited by Marco García García and Melanie Uth
[Studies in Language Companion Series 201] 2018
► pp. 229–252

Chapter 8
NP exclamatives and focus

| University of Cologne

This paper makes a contribution to the study of Spanish noun phrase (NP) exclamatives, such as ¡Las tonterías que dicen! ‘The silly things they say!’. The main purpose is to explore the relation between NP exclamatives and the notion of focus. I compare NP exclamatives with canonical focus-marking constructions such as focus-fronting constructions and cleft sentences and show that they share some crucial syntactic and prosodic features. Elaborating on both the similarities and differences between these different constructions, I argue that NP exclamatives exhibit a special kind of focus that points not to the propositional content, but rather to the relation between the propositional content and the exclamative illocution. Making use of both focus theory and speech act theory, I claim that exclamative constructions express a non-contrastive focus that indicates the presence of non-fulfilled speaker expectations.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The structure of NP exclamatives
    • 2.1Two types of NP exclamatives
    • 2.2The macro-syntactic and prosodic structure of NP exclamatives
      • 2.2.1The macro-syntactic structure
      • 2.2.2The prosodic structure
  • 3.NP exclamatives, clefts, and focus-fronting constructions
    • 3.1NP exclamatives and clefts
    • 3.2NP exclamatives and focus-fronting constructions
  • 4.Exclamative NPs and focus
    • 4.1Focus and domain widening
    • 4.2Focus and illocutionary force
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 28 November 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.201.08gar
References
Alarcos Llorach, Emilio
1978 Lo fuertes que eran. In Estudios de gramática funcional del español, Emilio Alarcos Llorach (ed.), 178–191. Madrid: Gredos.Google Scholar
Altmann, Hans
1993 Satzmodus. In Syntax. Ein internationales Handbuch zeitgenössischer Forschung, Joachim Jacobs, Arnim von Stechow, Wolfgang Sternefeld & Theo Vennemann (eds), 1006–1029. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Batliner, Anton
1988 Der Exklamativ: Mehr als Aussage oder doch nur mehr oder weniger Aussage? Experimente zur Rolle von Höhe und Position des F0-Gipfels. In Intonationsforschungen, Hans Altmann (ed.), 243–271. Tübingen: Niemeyer.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bello, Andrés
[1847]1981 Gramática de la lengua castellana destinada al uso de los americanos. Edición crítica de Ramón Trujillo. Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Instituto Universitario de la Lingüística Andrés Bello.Google Scholar
Bosque, Ignacio
1984 Sobre la sintaxis de las oraciones exclamativas. Hispanic Linguistics 1: 283–304.Google Scholar
2017 Spanish exclamatives in perspective: A survey of properties, classes, and current theoretical issues. In Advances in the Analysis of Spanish Exclamatives [Theoretical Developments in Hispanic Linguistics, Ignacio Bosque Muñoz (ed.), 1–52. Columbus OH: The Ohio State University Press.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brucart, José María
1992 Sobre el análisis de las construcciones enfáticas con artículo y cláusula de relativo. In Gramma-temas 1, Emilio Alarcos Llorach (ed.), 39–63. León: Universidad de León.Google Scholar
1999 La estructura del sintagma nominal: Las oraciones de relativo. In Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, Vol. 1., Ignacio Bosque Muñoz & Violeta Demonte (eds), 395–522. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe.Google Scholar
Castroviejo, Elena
2008 Deconstructing exclamations. Catalan Journal of Linguistics 7: 41–90.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Collins, Peter C.
1991 Cleft and Pseudo-Cleft Constructions in English. London: Routledge.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Curnow, Timothy J. & Travis, Catherine E.
2004 The emphatic es construction of Colombian Spanish. Paper presented to the Proceedings of the 2003 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society, Newcastle.
Delfitto, Denis & Fiorin, Gaetano
2014 Exclamatives: Issues of syntax logical form and interpretation. Lingua 152: 1–20.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
di Tullio, Ángela
2006 Clefting in spoken discourse. In Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics, Keith Brown (ed.). Amsterdam: Elsevier.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dufter, Andreas
2013 Fokus und Ironie im Französischen und Deutschen. Gestion de la structure informationnelle – Regards croisés, Colloque International, 14–15 June, Freiburg im Breisgau.Google Scholar
Elliott, Dale
1971 The Grammar of Emotive and Exclamatory Sentences in English. PhD dissertation, The Ohio State University.Google Scholar
Grimshaw, Jane
1979 Complement selection and the lexicon. Linguistic Inquiry 10(2): 279–326.Google Scholar
Hartmann, Katharina & Veenstra, Tonjes
2013 Introduction. In Cleft Structures [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 208], Katharina Hartmann & Tonjes Veenstra (eds), 1–32. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Helfrich, Uta & Pöll, Bernhard
2012 Wortstellung und Informationsstruktur. In Handbuch Spanisch. Sprache, Literatur, Kultur, Geschichte in Spanien und Hispanoamerika, Joachim Born, Robert Folger, Christopher F. Laferl & Bernhard Pöll (eds.), 340–345. Berlin: Erich Schmidt.Google Scholar
Hualde, José Ignacio
2005 The Sounds of Spanish. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Jacob, Daniel
2005 Adjective position, specificity, and information structure in Spanish. In Proceedings of the Workshop “Specificity and the evolution/emergence of nominal determination systems in Romance” [Arbeitspapiere des Fachbereichs Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Konstanz 119], Klaus von Heusinger, Georg A. Kaiser & Elisabeth Stark (eds.), 71–79. Universität Konstanz: Fachbereich Sprachwissenschaft.Google Scholar
Kiss, Katalin É.
1998 Identificational focus versus information focus. 74(2): 245–273.Google Scholar
Krifka, Manfred
2007 Basic notions of information structure. In The Notions of Information Structure [Interdisciplinary Studies on Information Structure 6], Caroline Féry, Gisbert Fanselow & Manfred Krifka (eds), 13–55. Potsdam: Universitätsverlag.Google Scholar
Lambrecht, Knud
1994 Information structure and sentence Form. Topic, Focus, and the Mental Representations of Discourse Referents. Cambridge: CUP.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2001 A framework for the analysis of cleft constructions. Linguistics 39(3): 463–516.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Leonetti, Manuel
1999 El artículo. In Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, Vol. 1, Ignacio Bosque Muñoz & Violeta Demonte (eds), 787–890. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe.Google Scholar
Méndez Vallejo, Dunia Catalina
2009 Focalizing ser (‘to be’) in Colombian Spanish, Indiana University.Google Scholar
Michaelis, Laura A.
2001 Exclamative constructions. In Sprachtypologie und sprachliche Universalien. Ein internationales Handbuch, Martin Haspelmath, Ekkehard König, Wulf Oesterreicher & Wolfgang Raible (eds), 1038–1050. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Oppenrieder, Wilhelm
1998 Intonatorische Kennzeichnung von Satzmodi. In Intonationsforschungen, Hans Altmann (ed.), 169–205. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar
Plann, Susan
1984 Cláusulas cuantificadas. Verba 11: 101–128.Google Scholar
Portner, Paul & Zanuttini, Raffaella
2003 Exclamative clauses: At the syntax-semantics interface. Language 79(1): 39–81.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2005 The semantics of nominal exclamatives. In Ellipsis and Non-Sentential Speech [Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy 81], Robert Stainton & Reinaldo Elugardo (eds), 57–67. Dordrecht: Springer.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Prieto, Pilar & Roseano, Paolo
2010a Introduction. In Transcription of intonation in the Spanish language, Pilar Prieto & Paolo Roseano (eds), 1–15. Munich: Lincom.Google Scholar
2010b Transcription of Intonation in the Spanish Language. Munich: Lincom.Google Scholar
Real-Academia-Española (ed.)
2009 Nueva gramática de la lengua española. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe.Google Scholar
Reich, Uli
2018 Presupposed modality. In Focus Realization and Interpretation in Romance [Studies in Language Companion Series 201], Marco García García & Melanie Uth (eds., 203–227. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (this volume)Google Scholar
Rizzi, Luigi
1997 The fine structure of the left periphery. In Elements of Grammar: Handbook of Generative Syntax, Liliane Haegeman (ed.), 281–337. Dordrecht: Kluwer.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roguska, Magdalena
2008 Exklamation und Negation. Berlin: Logos Verlag.Google Scholar
Rooth, Mats
1992 A theory of focus interpretation. Natural Language Semantics 1: 75–116.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1999 Focus. In The Handbook of Contemporary semantic Theory, Shalom Lappin (ed.), 271–298. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Searle, John
1976 A Taxonomy of Illocutionary Acts. Trier: L.A.U.T.Google Scholar
1979 Expression and Meaning. Studies in the Theory of Speech Acts. Cambridge: CUP.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Searle, John & Vanderveken, Daniel
1985 Foundations of Illocutionary Logic. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Sedano, Mercedes
1995 Las construcciones hendidas desde dos perspectivas teóricas y metodológicas. Lingüística 7: 143–152.Google Scholar
Torrego Salcedo, Esther
1984 On inversion in Spanish and some of its effects. Linguistic Inquiry 15(1): 103–129.Google Scholar
1988 Operadores en las exclamativas con artículo determinado de valor cuantificativo. Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica 36(1): 109–122.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Villalba, Xavier
2008 Exclamatives: A thematic guide with many questions and few answers. Catalan Journal of Linguistics 7: 9–40.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Larrivée, Pierre
2022. The curious case of the rare focus movement in French. In When Data Challenges Theory [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 273], ► pp. 184 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 22 march 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.