Is focus a root phenomenon?
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Karen Lahousse
Abstract
This article argues that some types of syntactically marked focus are root (main clause) phenomena in French. We show that c’est (‘it is’) clefts, which explicitly mark narrow new information focus, are root phenomena, in contrast with il y a (‘there is’) clefts marking broad new information focus and contrastive focus c’est-clefts. Nominal inversion in French behaves in the opposite way and is argued to be an ‘inverse root phenomenon’. These observations are explained by Krifka’s (2017) notion of a ‘judge’, its relation to epistemic modality and the distinction between assertive embedded clauses (in which root phenomena occur) and non-assertive embedded clauses (in which root phenomena do not occur).
Abstract
This article argues that some types of syntactically marked focus are root (main clause) phenomena in French. We show that c’est (‘it is’) clefts, which explicitly mark narrow new information focus, are root phenomena, in contrast with il y a (‘there is’) clefts marking broad new information focus and contrastive focus c’est-clefts. Nominal inversion in French behaves in the opposite way and is argued to be an ‘inverse root phenomenon’. These observations are explained by Krifka’s (2017) notion of a ‘judge’, its relation to epistemic modality and the distinction between assertive embedded clauses (in which root phenomena occur) and non-assertive embedded clauses (in which root phenomena do not occur).
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction. When data challenges theory 1
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Part I. Theoretical studies
- Distinguishing psychological Given/New from linguistic Topic/Focus makes things clearer 39
- Remarks on information structure marking asymmetries 57
- Alternatives to information structure 91
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Part II. Case studies
- How alternatives are created 115
- Is focus a root phenomenon? 147
- The curious case of the rare focus movement in French 183
- To be or not to be focus adverbials? 203
- Unmarked use of marked syntactic structures 239
- Translation as a source of pragmatic interference? 271
- Index 305
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction. When data challenges theory 1
-
Part I. Theoretical studies
- Distinguishing psychological Given/New from linguistic Topic/Focus makes things clearer 39
- Remarks on information structure marking asymmetries 57
- Alternatives to information structure 91
-
Part II. Case studies
- How alternatives are created 115
- Is focus a root phenomenon? 147
- The curious case of the rare focus movement in French 183
- To be or not to be focus adverbials? 203
- Unmarked use of marked syntactic structures 239
- Translation as a source of pragmatic interference? 271
- Index 305
