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On truth persistence

A comparison between European Portuguese and Italian in relation to sempre
  • Patrícia Amaral and Fabio Del Prete
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Variation within and across Romance Languages
This chapter is in the book Variation within and across Romance Languages

Abstract

This paper analyzes a non-temporal interpretation of the adverb sempre “always” in European Portuguese and Italian, in which the adverb expresses persistence of the truth of a proposition over time and displays specific contextual constraints (TP-sempre). Despite an overlap in the contexts in which TP-sempre may occur in both languages, we provide data showing that its distribution is not exactly the same in European Portuguese and Italian. In view of these data, we propose that TP-sempre is a modal operator of confirmation in both languages, but that it is more restricted in Italian in that it has a plan presupposition only in this language.

Abstract

This paper analyzes a non-temporal interpretation of the adverb sempre “always” in European Portuguese and Italian, in which the adverb expresses persistence of the truth of a proposition over time and displays specific contextual constraints (TP-sempre). Despite an overlap in the contexts in which TP-sempre may occur in both languages, we provide data showing that its distribution is not exactly the same in European Portuguese and Italian. In view of these data, we propose that TP-sempre is a modal operator of confirmation in both languages, but that it is more restricted in Italian in that it has a plan presupposition only in this language.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword and Acknowledgments vii
  4. Editors’ introduction 1
  5. Part I. Sound patterns
  6. Sibilant voicing assimilation in peninsular Spanish as gestural blending 17
  7. Phonology-morphology opacity in Harmonic Serialism 39
  8. Morphologically conditioned intervocalic rhotacism in Algherese Catalan 63
  9. Muta cum liquida in the light of Tertenia Sardinian metathesis and compensatory lengthening Latin tr > Old French Vrr 77
  10. Schwa at the phonology/syntax interface 101
  11. Weight effects across verbal domains 119
  12. Part II. Syntax and semantics
  13. On truth persistence 135
  14. Pick some but not all alternatives! 155
  15. Polarity fronting in Romanian and Sardinian 173
  16. Degree quantification and scope in Puerto Rican Spanish 199
  17. ‘Minimal link constraint’ violations 213
  18. On subjunctives and islandhood 233
  19. When control can’t be a fact 255
  20. Part III. Historical aspects
  21. Prevocalic velar advancement in Chilean Spanish and Proto-Romance 277
  22. The role of the copula in the diachronic development of focus constructions in Portuguese 297
  23. The French wh interrogative system 315
  24. On the relation between functional architecture and patterns of change in Romance object clitic syntax 331
  25. Part IV. Interactions across dialects and languages
  26. Investigating the effects of perceptual salience and regional dialect on phonetic accommodation in Spanish 351
  27. English questions, Spanish structure 379
  28. French oral proficiency assessment 401
  29. Name index 417
  30. Subject index 423
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.333.11ama

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword and Acknowledgments vii
  4. Editors’ introduction 1
  5. Part I. Sound patterns
  6. Sibilant voicing assimilation in peninsular Spanish as gestural blending 17
  7. Phonology-morphology opacity in Harmonic Serialism 39
  8. Morphologically conditioned intervocalic rhotacism in Algherese Catalan 63
  9. Muta cum liquida in the light of Tertenia Sardinian metathesis and compensatory lengthening Latin tr > Old French Vrr 77
  10. Schwa at the phonology/syntax interface 101
  11. Weight effects across verbal domains 119
  12. Part II. Syntax and semantics
  13. On truth persistence 135
  14. Pick some but not all alternatives! 155
  15. Polarity fronting in Romanian and Sardinian 173
  16. Degree quantification and scope in Puerto Rican Spanish 199
  17. ‘Minimal link constraint’ violations 213
  18. On subjunctives and islandhood 233
  19. When control can’t be a fact 255
  20. Part III. Historical aspects
  21. Prevocalic velar advancement in Chilean Spanish and Proto-Romance 277
  22. The role of the copula in the diachronic development of focus constructions in Portuguese 297
  23. The French wh interrogative system 315
  24. On the relation between functional architecture and patterns of change in Romance object clitic syntax 331
  25. Part IV. Interactions across dialects and languages
  26. Investigating the effects of perceptual salience and regional dialect on phonetic accommodation in Spanish 351
  27. English questions, Spanish structure 379
  28. French oral proficiency assessment 401
  29. Name index 417
  30. Subject index 423
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