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In:The Interpersonal Level in Functional Discourse Grammar
Edited by Monielly Serafim, Matthias Mittendorfer and Kees Hengeveld
[Studies in Language Companion Series 241] 2027
► pp. 224–253

Cleft constructions with lo que ‘what’ in spoken European Spanish

 | University of Santiago de Compostela
 | University of Santiago de Compostela
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
This chapter deals with regular and reversed cleft constructions with lo que ‘what’ and their use in a corpus of spoken Spanish. Regular lo-que-clefts serve the expression of Focus. The complexity of the clefted constituent in Focus varies between (i) noun phrases, (ii) non-finite, and (iii) finite clauses. Independently of the complexity of the focal constituent, the free relative clause tends to contain information that contrasts in different ways with the preceding context. In reversed lo-que-clefts, the clefted constituent has Topic function, and the free relative may contain an entity in Focus. It will be shown that Functional Discourse Grammar is a valuable descriptive tool for this account.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Clefting in Spanish and English
  • 3.The nature of lo-que-clefts
    • 3.1The clefted constituent is a noun phrase
    • 3.2The clefted constituent is a non-finite clause
    • 3.3The clefted constituent is a complement clause
    • 3.4Concluding remarks
  • 4.Reversed clefts with lo que
    • 4.1Reversed clefts introduced by a demonstrative pronoun
    • 4.2Reversed clefts introduced by a noun phrase
    • 4.3Concluding remarks
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Author queries
  • Notes
  • Uncommon abbreviations
  • References
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Corpora
ADESSE: Base de datos de Verbos, Alternancias de Diátesis y Esquemas Sintáctico-Semánticos del Español, based on the Archivo de textos hispánicos de la Universidad de Santiago (ARTHUS). [URL]
ESLORA: Corpus para el estudio del español oral, v. 2.3, October 2024. [URL]
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