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Last things first: An FDG approach to clause-final focus constituents in Spanish and English

  • Mike Hannay and Elena Martínez Caro
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Languages and Cultures in Contrast and Comparison
This chapter is in the book Languages and Cultures in Contrast and Comparison

Abstract

Within Functional Grammar it has been claimed that a small set of languages, including Polish and Dutch, may have a special clause-final position reserved for certain kinds of Focus constituents. But it has also been suggested that there is insufficient evidence to establish whether this is actually a pragmatically marked position or whether elements which end up in final position simply acquire a kind of natural relief. In this paper we compare discourse data from Spanish and English, which have different basic functional patterns, within Functional Discourse Grammar and conclude that the behaviour of clause-final focal elements in specific constructions in these languages may indeed warrant the positing of special focus positions, at least from a functional point of view.

Abstract

Within Functional Grammar it has been claimed that a small set of languages, including Polish and Dutch, may have a special clause-final position reserved for certain kinds of Focus constituents. But it has also been suggested that there is insufficient evidence to establish whether this is actually a pragmatically marked position or whether elements which end up in final position simply acquire a kind of natural relief. In this paper we compare discourse data from Spanish and English, which have different basic functional patterns, within Functional Discourse Grammar and conclude that the behaviour of clause-final focal elements in specific constructions in these languages may indeed warrant the positing of special focus positions, at least from a functional point of view.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Contributors vii
  4. Introduction xv
  5. Part I. Information structure
  6. Theme zones in contrast: An analysis of their linguistic realization in the communicative act of a non-acceptance 3
  7. Last things first: An FDG approach to clause-final focus constituents in Spanish and English 33
  8. Contrastive perspectives on cleft sentences 69
  9. The position of adverbials and the pragmatic organization of the sentence: A comparison of French and Dutch 89
  10. Part II. Lexis in contrast
  11. Swedish verbs of perception from a typological and contrastive perspective 123
  12. 'Abroad' and semantically related terms in some European languages and in Akan (Ghana) 173
  13. The expression of emotion in Italian and English fairy tales 193
  14. The feminine stereotype in gay characterization: A look at English and Spanish 221
  15. Part III. Contrastive perspectives on SLA
  16. Communicative tasks across languages: Movie narratives in English, in English as a foreign language and in German 247
  17. Linguistic theory and bilingual systems: Simultaneous and sequential English/Spanish bilingualism 275
  18. Awareness of orthographic form and morphophonemic learning in EFL 299
  19. Contrastive intonation and error analysis: Tonality and tonicity in the interlanguage of a group of Spanish learners of English 327
  20. Author index 355
  21. Index of languages 359
  22. Index of terms 361
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.175.05han

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Contributors vii
  4. Introduction xv
  5. Part I. Information structure
  6. Theme zones in contrast: An analysis of their linguistic realization in the communicative act of a non-acceptance 3
  7. Last things first: An FDG approach to clause-final focus constituents in Spanish and English 33
  8. Contrastive perspectives on cleft sentences 69
  9. The position of adverbials and the pragmatic organization of the sentence: A comparison of French and Dutch 89
  10. Part II. Lexis in contrast
  11. Swedish verbs of perception from a typological and contrastive perspective 123
  12. 'Abroad' and semantically related terms in some European languages and in Akan (Ghana) 173
  13. The expression of emotion in Italian and English fairy tales 193
  14. The feminine stereotype in gay characterization: A look at English and Spanish 221
  15. Part III. Contrastive perspectives on SLA
  16. Communicative tasks across languages: Movie narratives in English, in English as a foreign language and in German 247
  17. Linguistic theory and bilingual systems: Simultaneous and sequential English/Spanish bilingualism 275
  18. Awareness of orthographic form and morphophonemic learning in EFL 299
  19. Contrastive intonation and error analysis: Tonality and tonicity in the interlanguage of a group of Spanish learners of English 327
  20. Author index 355
  21. Index of languages 359
  22. Index of terms 361
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