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Chapter 13. A comparative look at Focus Fronting in Romance

  • Eva-Maria Remberger
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Left Sentence Peripheries in Spanish
This chapter is in the book Left Sentence Peripheries in Spanish

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to describe the syntax and semantics of Focus Fronting (FF) constructions in a range of Romance languages, including both regional and diachronic varieties, in order to reclassify these constructions on the basis of a common comparative ground. I shall begin with a look at some Sardinian data, mostly already presented in earlier research literature, since this Romance language uses FF in more contexts than other Modern Romance varieties. Sardinian not only employs FF with argumental and adjunct constituents, but also with predicates. Moreover, Sardinian FF does not necessarily yield a contrastive interpretation, as FF of constituents usually does in Italian and Spanish, but it can also encode pure Information Focus, although an emphatic value is often added. Using a set of syntactic and semantic-pragmatic properties defined principally for Sardinian, I will analyze similar FF data – Quantifier Raising (QP-fronting), Stylistic Fronting (SF), Mirative Fronting, Emphatic Focus etc. – in other Romance varieties and outline the similarities and differences found between these varieties. This will result in a systematic, descriptive overview of the crosslinguistic variation of FF found across the Romance languages.

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to describe the syntax and semantics of Focus Fronting (FF) constructions in a range of Romance languages, including both regional and diachronic varieties, in order to reclassify these constructions on the basis of a common comparative ground. I shall begin with a look at some Sardinian data, mostly already presented in earlier research literature, since this Romance language uses FF in more contexts than other Modern Romance varieties. Sardinian not only employs FF with argumental and adjunct constituents, but also with predicates. Moreover, Sardinian FF does not necessarily yield a contrastive interpretation, as FF of constituents usually does in Italian and Spanish, but it can also encode pure Information Focus, although an emphatic value is often added. Using a set of syntactic and semantic-pragmatic properties defined principally for Sardinian, I will analyze similar FF data – Quantifier Raising (QP-fronting), Stylistic Fronting (SF), Mirative Fronting, Emphatic Focus etc. – in other Romance varieties and outline the similarities and differences found between these varieties. This will result in a systematic, descriptive overview of the crosslinguistic variation of FF found across the Romance languages.

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.214.19rem

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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