The Syntax-Information Structure Interface Evidence from Spanish and English
In the last decade, the notions of topic and focus have come to play an increasingly relevant role in theoretical linguistics. Although these notions are often taken for granted, they are still poorly understood. This study offers a detailed analysis of the precise definitions of these and related t...
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| Main Author | |
|---|---|
| Format | eBook Book |
| Language | English Spanish |
| Published |
New York, N.Y
Routledge
2004
Taylor and Francis Taylor & Francis Group |
| Edition | 1 |
| Series | Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics |
| Subjects | |
| Online Access | Get full text |
| ISBN | 9780415970952 9780415537506 0415537509 0415970954 |
| DOI | 10.4324/9780203501719 |
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| Abstract | In the last decade, the notions of topic and focus have come to play an increasingly relevant role in theoretical linguistics. Although these notions are often taken for granted, they are still poorly understood. This study offers a detailed analysis of the precise definitions of these and related terms (theme, topic, background, given information, focus, contrast, etc.) as well as of their combination into information structures such as the topic-focus and background-focus articulations. It recommends pursuing a feature-based typology of topics and argues against a dual nature of focus (i.e. presentational vs. contrastive). Central questions addressed are the analysis of subjects in Spanish and English (DP vs NP and null vs. preverbal vs. postverbal) and the nature of constructions such as topicalization, left-dislocation, and focus preposing. Further, it is proposed that in Spanish information structure can be read off the syntax: while an overt DP in the preverbal specifier subject position is interpreted as the topic in a topic-focus articulation, one or more left-or right-dislocated phrases are interpreted as part of the background in background-focus/focus-background structures.
Eugenia Casielles-Suárez received her Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She currently teaches at Wayne State University. |
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| AbstractList | In the last decade, the notions of topic and focus have come to play an increasingly relevant role in theoretical linguistics. Although these notions are often taken for granted, they are still poorly understood. This study offers a detailed analysis of the precise definitions of these and related terms (theme, topic, background, given information, focus, contrast, etc.) as well as of their combination into information structures such as the topic-focus and background-focus articulations. It recommends pursuing a feature-based typology of topics and argues against a dual nature of focus (i.e. presentational vs. contrastive). Central questions addressed are the analysis of subjects in Spanish and English (DP vs NP and null vs. preverbal vs. postverbal) and the nature of constructions such as topicalization, left-dislocation, and focus preposing. Further, it is proposed that in Spanish information structure can be read off the syntax: while an overt DP in the preverbal specifier subject position is interpreted as the topic in a topic-focus articulation, one or more left-or right-dislocated phrases are interpreted as part of the background in background-focus/focus-background structures.
Eugenia Casielles-Suárez received her Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She currently teaches at Wayne State University. In the last decade, the notions of topic and focus have come to play an increasingly relevant role in theoretical linguistics. Although these notions are often taken for granted, they are still poorly understood. This study offers a detailed analysis of the precise definitions of these and related terms (theme, topic, background, given information, focus, contrast, etc.) as well as of their combination into information structures such as the topic-focus and background-focus articulations. It recommends pursuing a feature-based typology of topics and argues against a dual nature of focus (i.e. presentational vs. contrastive). Central questions addressed are the analysis of subjects in Spanish and English (DP vs NP and null vs. preverbal vs. postverbal) and the nature of constructions such as topicalization, left-dislocation, and focus preposing. Further, it is proposed that in Spanish information structure can be read off the syntax: while an overt DP in the preverbal specifier subject position is interpreted as the topic in a topic-focus articulation, one or more left-or right-dislocated phrases are interpreted as part of the background in background-focus/focus-background structures. Central questions addressed are the analysis of subjects in Spanish and English (DP vs. NP and null vs. preverbal vs. postverbal) and the nature of constructions such as topicalization, left-dislocation, and focus preposing. |
| Author | Casielles-Suárez, Eugenia |
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| Copyright | Copyright © 2004 by Taylor & Francis Group, a Division of T&F Informa. |
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| Keywords | Clitic Left Dislocation Discourse Referent Preverbal Subject Position Left Dislocated Phrases Focus Background Structure Contrastive Focus Wh Phrases Topical Foci Preverbal Subject VP Internal Subject Preposed Constituent Topical Phrases John Drinks Null Subject Preposed Element Sentence Final Position Resumptive Pronoun Full Pronouns Postverbal Subjects Left Dislocated Elements Sentence Initial Position Focus Preposing Topical Elements Dislocated Phrases Semantic Focus |
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| Language | English Spanish |
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| Notes | "First issued in paperback 2012"--T.p. verso of pbk "A Routledge series"--Preceding t.p Includes bibliographical references (p. 219-228) and index |
| OCLC | 437057628 |
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| PageCount | 248 |
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| PublicationDate | 2004 20040801 2004-08-01 |
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| Snippet | In the last decade, the notions of topic and focus have come to play an increasingly relevant role in theoretical linguistics. Although these notions are often... Central questions addressed are the analysis of subjects in Spanish and English (DP vs. NP and null vs. preverbal vs. postverbal) and the nature of... |
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| SubjectTerms | English language English language -- Grammar, Comparative -- Spanish Focus (Linguistics) Grammar, Comparative and general Grammar, Comparative and general -- Topic and comment Language & Linguistics Spanish language Spanish language -- Grammar, Comparative -- English Topic and comment |
| Subtitle | Evidence from Spanish and English |
| TableOfContents | 5.3.5 Lambrecht's Sentence-, Predicate- and Argument-Focus -- 5.3.6 Kiss's Identificational vs. Information Focus -- 5.4 The Projection of Focus -- 5.5 Some Conclusions -- NOTES -- CHAPTER 6 Focus Preposing -- 6.1 Introduction1 -- 6.2 FP as a Topical Focus -- 6.2.1 The Reconstruction Analysis -- 6.2.2 The Interaction of Two Dichotomies -- 6.2.3 Metalinguistic Focus -- 6.3 FP as a Nontopical Focus -- 6.3.1 FP and Focused Subjects -- 6.3.2. FP and Language-Particular Features -- 6.3.3 FP and Wh-Movement -- NOTES -- CHAPTER 7 Information Structure and Syntactic Structure -- 7.1 Introduction -- 7.2 The Topic-Focus Articulation -- 7.2.1 Previous Proposals -- 7.2.2 Vallduví's Link-Tail Division -- 7.2.3 Two Dichotomies -- 7.3 The TFA and Syntactic Structure -- 7.4 Overall Conclusions -- NOTES -- References -- Index Book Cover -- Half-Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- THE SYNTAX-INFORMATION STRUCTURE INTERFACE -- CHAPTER 1 Introduction -- NOTES -- CHAPTER 2 Topics -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 Brief Historical Survey -- 2.3 Analysis of Topic Characterizations -- 2.3.1 Discourse Characterizations -- 2.3.1.1 Aboutness -- 2.3.1.2 Discourse Referent -- 2.3.1.3 Discourse-oldness -- 2.3.1.4 Context Boundness -- 2.3.2 Syntactic Characterizations -- 2.3.2.1 Sentence-initial Position -- 2.3.2.2 Subject -- 2.3.2.3 Pronominal Form -- 2.3.3 Some Conclusions -- NOTES -- CHAPTER 3 Topical Phrases and Topicalizing Constructions -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 Topical Phrases -- 3.2.1 Null Phrases -- 3.2.1.1 Subject pro -- 3.2.1.2 Direct Object pro? -- 3.2.1.3 Object Clitics and Topical Objects -- 3.2.2 Overt Phrases -- 3.2.2.1 Full Pronouns -- 3.2.2.2 Lexical Phrases -- 3.2.2.3 Dislocated Phrases -- 3.2.3 Internal vs. External Topical Phrases -- 3.3 Topicalizing Constructions -- 3.3.1 Clitic Left-dislocation vs. English Left-dislocation -- 3.3.2 Spanish Strong-Pronoun Left-dislocation -- 3.3.3. CLLD with no overt clitic vs. English Topicalization -- 3.3.4 Right-dislocation -- 3.4 Towards a Typology of Topics -- NOTES -- CHAPTER 4 Bare Nominals -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 A Syntactic View -- 4.2.1 Preverbal vs. Postverbal Subjects1 -- 4.2.2 Preverbal Subjects vs. Dislocated Phrases -- 4.2.3 Focused Subjects -- 4.3. A TFA View -- 4.4 Towards a TFA-syntactic view -- NOTES -- CHAPTER 5 Focus -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.2 Focus, Accent, New Information and Sentence-final Position -- 5.3 Types of Focus -- 5.3.1 Rochemont's Presentational vs. Contrastive Focus6 -- 5.3.2 Gundel's Psychological, Semantic and Contrastive Focus -- 5.3.3 Erteschik-Shir's Metalinguistic Focus -- 5.3.4 Vallduví's Retrieve-Add vs. Retrieve-Substitute Focus |
| Title | The Syntax-Information Structure Interface |
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