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Chapter 3. Semantic anchoring

Evidence from Asturian clitic placement
  • Francisco J. Fernández-Rubiera
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Abstract

In Asturian, and differently from its western Iberian neighbors (i.e., Galician and European Portuguese), enclisis (or postverbal clitics) is also attested in embedded contexts. This syntactic structure is shown to give rise to a [+epistemic] reading of the content in the embedded clause, an interpretation that may be anchored either to the speaker, to the matrix subject, or to an intermediate subject. Following previous work, I show that both the different clitic patterns attested and the [±epistemic] anchoring these patterns give rise to can receive a principled account under the analysis entertained. In turn, this chapter contributes to further our understanding of how syntax works in parallel with semantics to derive these syntactic structures and their interpretation.

Abstract

In Asturian, and differently from its western Iberian neighbors (i.e., Galician and European Portuguese), enclisis (or postverbal clitics) is also attested in embedded contexts. This syntactic structure is shown to give rise to a [+epistemic] reading of the content in the embedded clause, an interpretation that may be anchored either to the speaker, to the matrix subject, or to an intermediate subject. Following previous work, I show that both the different clitic patterns attested and the [±epistemic] anchoring these patterns give rise to can receive a principled account under the analysis entertained. In turn, this chapter contributes to further our understanding of how syntax works in parallel with semantics to derive these syntactic structures and their interpretation.

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