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Chapter 9. On the grammaticalization of the Assertion Structure

A view from Spanish
  • María Luisa Zubizarreta
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Left Sentence Peripheries in Spanish
This chapter is in the book Left Sentence Peripheries in Spanish

Abstract

This paper argues that the standard and colloquial variety of Spanish pseudo-clefts provide support for the bi-clausal analysis of such constructions (Ross 1972, Schlenker 1998, 2003, den Dikken et al. 2000), and this transparently encodes the Assertion Structure of the sentence: the pre-copular clause encodes the presupposition and the post-copular clause the assertion, with the focused phrase contained within the latter. It is furthermore argued that the Caribbean Spanish bare-copular construction, in particular the Andean variety of the Bucaramanga dialect of Colombia (Méndez-Vallejo 2009), constitutes a more advanced stage of the bi-clausal grammaticalization of the Assertion Structure, with a reduced bi-clausal structure. Finally, it is suggested that standard Spanish monoclausal sentences with a sentence final focus in a non-canonical word order can be given an analysis that involves a variant of the reduced bi-clausal structure proposed for the Caribbean Spanish bare-copular construction.

Abstract

This paper argues that the standard and colloquial variety of Spanish pseudo-clefts provide support for the bi-clausal analysis of such constructions (Ross 1972, Schlenker 1998, 2003, den Dikken et al. 2000), and this transparently encodes the Assertion Structure of the sentence: the pre-copular clause encodes the presupposition and the post-copular clause the assertion, with the focused phrase contained within the latter. It is furthermore argued that the Caribbean Spanish bare-copular construction, in particular the Andean variety of the Bucaramanga dialect of Colombia (Méndez-Vallejo 2009), constitutes a more advanced stage of the bi-clausal grammaticalization of the Assertion Structure, with a reduced bi-clausal structure. Finally, it is suggested that standard Spanish monoclausal sentences with a sentence final focus in a non-canonical word order can be given an analysis that involves a variant of the reduced bi-clausal structure proposed for the Caribbean Spanish bare-copular construction.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Section 1. Left Sentence Peripheries in Old Spanish
  6. Chapter 1. Left Dislocation phenomena in Old Spanish 23
  7. Chapter 2. Revisiting stylistic fronting in Old Spanish 53
  8. Chapter 3. Left forever 77
  9. Section 2. Syntactic variation in Modern Spanish
  10. Chapter 4. Spanish predicative verbless clauses and the left periphery 101
  11. Chapter 5. Fronting and contrastively focused secondary predicates in Spanish 125
  12. Chapter 6. The left periphery of Spanish comparative correlatives 155
  13. Chapter 7. The article at the left periphery 185
  14. Section 3. Syntax, semantics, and pragmatics
  15. Chapter 8. Evidentiality and illocutionary force 217
  16. Chapter 9. On the grammaticalization of the Assertion Structure 253
  17. Chapter 10. Informational status and the semantics of mood in Spanish preposed complement clauses 283
  18. Chapter 11. Fronting and irony in Spanish 309
  19. Section 4. Spanish among the Romance languages
  20. Chapter 12. Left periphery in discourse 345
  21. Chapter 13. A comparative look at Focus Fronting in Romance 383
  22. Index 419
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.214.14zub

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Section 1. Left Sentence Peripheries in Old Spanish
  6. Chapter 1. Left Dislocation phenomena in Old Spanish 23
  7. Chapter 2. Revisiting stylistic fronting in Old Spanish 53
  8. Chapter 3. Left forever 77
  9. Section 2. Syntactic variation in Modern Spanish
  10. Chapter 4. Spanish predicative verbless clauses and the left periphery 101
  11. Chapter 5. Fronting and contrastively focused secondary predicates in Spanish 125
  12. Chapter 6. The left periphery of Spanish comparative correlatives 155
  13. Chapter 7. The article at the left periphery 185
  14. Section 3. Syntax, semantics, and pragmatics
  15. Chapter 8. Evidentiality and illocutionary force 217
  16. Chapter 9. On the grammaticalization of the Assertion Structure 253
  17. Chapter 10. Informational status and the semantics of mood in Spanish preposed complement clauses 283
  18. Chapter 11. Fronting and irony in Spanish 309
  19. Section 4. Spanish among the Romance languages
  20. Chapter 12. Left periphery in discourse 345
  21. Chapter 13. A comparative look at Focus Fronting in Romance 383
  22. Index 419
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