Verum focus and Romanian polar questions
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Ion Giurgea
Abstract
Most previous research on the intonation of Romanian polar questions has claimed that the neutral pattern has the main prominence (nuclear accent) on the finite verb, and a final contour characteristic of questions with early focus. I argue that this pattern is not neutral, at least in information-seeking questions, but indicates verum focus; the neutral pattern has the nuclear accent on the last prosodic word, as expected given the general prosodic properties of Romanian. The data presented will also shed some light on the conditions of use of verum focus in questions.
Abstract
Most previous research on the intonation of Romanian polar questions has claimed that the neutral pattern has the main prominence (nuclear accent) on the finite verb, and a final contour characteristic of questions with early focus. I argue that this pattern is not neutral, at least in information-seeking questions, but indicates verum focus; the neutral pattern has the nuclear accent on the last prosodic word, as expected given the general prosodic properties of Romanian. The data presented will also shed some light on the conditions of use of verum focus in questions.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- The acquisition of verbal passives by Portuguese-speaking children 9
- Plus in the French negative system 29
- An experimental approach to parallelism in ellipsis 49
- On focal and wh -projections, indirect wh -questions, and quantificational chains 73
- Is there a dative alternation in Romanian? 91
- The interpretation of null subjects in Romanian 111
- Verum focus and Romanian polar questions 135
- The downward grammaticalisation of irrealis subordinators in Romanian, Salentino and southern Calabrese 157
- Differential object marking 171
- The effects of language ecology on syntactic structure 193
- The syntactic distribution of raddoppiamento fonosinttatico in Cosentino 205
- The causative-inchoative alternation (as we know it) might fall short 239
- On wh -extraction in de + que constructions in Spanish 263
- On another apparent violation of the subject-island constraint in French 277
- Moving towards an event 297
- Cyclicity without containment in Romanian perfects 311
- Dative clitics in Romanian ditransitives 335
- Syntactic vs pragmatic passive 357
- Index 373
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- The acquisition of verbal passives by Portuguese-speaking children 9
- Plus in the French negative system 29
- An experimental approach to parallelism in ellipsis 49
- On focal and wh -projections, indirect wh -questions, and quantificational chains 73
- Is there a dative alternation in Romanian? 91
- The interpretation of null subjects in Romanian 111
- Verum focus and Romanian polar questions 135
- The downward grammaticalisation of irrealis subordinators in Romanian, Salentino and southern Calabrese 157
- Differential object marking 171
- The effects of language ecology on syntactic structure 193
- The syntactic distribution of raddoppiamento fonosinttatico in Cosentino 205
- The causative-inchoative alternation (as we know it) might fall short 239
- On wh -extraction in de + que constructions in Spanish 263
- On another apparent violation of the subject-island constraint in French 277
- Moving towards an event 297
- Cyclicity without containment in Romanian perfects 311
- Dative clitics in Romanian ditransitives 335
- Syntactic vs pragmatic passive 357
- Index 373
