Verb focus in Haitian
-
Herby Glaude
Abstract
This article bears on VFD (Verb Fronting with Doubling) constructions in Haitian, whose left periphery contains a bare homonym of the lexical verb and which trigger a Verb-Focus effect. We seek to update the description of VFD and to reach a satisfactory analysis providing empirical support for addressing the theoretical issues central to the present volume. Our study leads us to conclude that: (i) The syntactic operations involved in the derivation of VFD are available independently of reiteration; (ii) The semantic effect of VFD is not ‘intensive’ but contrastive, and arises from restrictive modification, a form-meaning relation hardly analysable as ‘iconic’; (iii) Haitian VFD may have arisen from a regular recombination of features partaking in focus effects in French, Gbe, and Universal Grammar.
Abstract
This article bears on VFD (Verb Fronting with Doubling) constructions in Haitian, whose left periphery contains a bare homonym of the lexical verb and which trigger a Verb-Focus effect. We seek to update the description of VFD and to reach a satisfactory analysis providing empirical support for addressing the theoretical issues central to the present volume. Our study leads us to conclude that: (i) The syntactic operations involved in the derivation of VFD are available independently of reiteration; (ii) The semantic effect of VFD is not ‘intensive’ but contrastive, and arises from restrictive modification, a form-meaning relation hardly analysable as ‘iconic’; (iii) Haitian VFD may have arisen from a regular recombination of features partaking in focus effects in French, Gbe, and Universal Grammar.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Reduplication beyond the word level 1
- The morphosyntax of non-iconic reduplications 27
- Verb focus in Haitian 77
- Verb doubling in Breton and Gungbe 135
- NN constructions in Modern Hebrew 175
- Attenuative verbal reduplication in Mauritian 203
- Reduplication in São Tomense 235
- Reiteration in Pichi 251
- Subject Index 285
- Language Index 287
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Reduplication beyond the word level 1
- The morphosyntax of non-iconic reduplications 27
- Verb focus in Haitian 77
- Verb doubling in Breton and Gungbe 135
- NN constructions in Modern Hebrew 175
- Attenuative verbal reduplication in Mauritian 203
- Reduplication in São Tomense 235
- Reiteration in Pichi 251
- Subject Index 285
- Language Index 287
