Matrix complementisers and ‘speech act’ syntax
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Alice Corr
Abstract
This paper discusses apparent cases of Catalan and Spanish non-embedded clauses headed by the subordinating complementiser que ‘that’, sometimes referred to in the literature as cases of insubordination (Evans 2007, 2009). Three interpretatively distinct types of ‘insubordinate’ que are identified, but only one of these types, viz. quotative que, is shown to be formally identical to the subordinating complementiser. The other two types, viz. exclamative and conjunctive que, exhibit the formal behaviour of speech acts, following Krifka’s (2001, 2003) diagnostics. It is argued that, from a cartographic approach, the three types of ‘insubordinate’ que cannot be accommodated within the split CP, and that, given their formal properties, exclamative and conjunctive que are instead operative within an articulated layer above Force dedicated to encoding ‘speech act’ syntax, a domain argued for in Speas & Tenny (2003), Haegeman & Hill (2014), Haegeman (2014).
Abstract
This paper discusses apparent cases of Catalan and Spanish non-embedded clauses headed by the subordinating complementiser que ‘that’, sometimes referred to in the literature as cases of insubordination (Evans 2007, 2009). Three interpretatively distinct types of ‘insubordinate’ que are identified, but only one of these types, viz. quotative que, is shown to be formally identical to the subordinating complementiser. The other two types, viz. exclamative and conjunctive que, exhibit the formal behaviour of speech acts, following Krifka’s (2001, 2003) diagnostics. It is argued that, from a cartographic approach, the three types of ‘insubordinate’ que cannot be accommodated within the split CP, and that, given their formal properties, exclamative and conjunctive que are instead operative within an articulated layer above Force dedicated to encoding ‘speech act’ syntax, a domain argued for in Speas & Tenny (2003), Haegeman & Hill (2014), Haegeman (2014).
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- The spurious vs. dative problem 5
- Givenness and the difference between wh -fronted and wh -in-situ questions in Spanish 21
- The building blocks of Catalan ‘at least’ 41
- On ben in Trentino regional Italian 55
- Matrix complementisers and ‘speech act’ syntax 75
- External possession in Brazilian Portuguese 95
- Spanish adjectives are PathPs 111
- Additive and aspectual anche in Old Italian 127
- The acquisition of variation 143
- Exploring sociolinguistic discontinuity in a minority variety of French 159
- (And yet) another proposal for ser/estar 177
- Spanish estarse is not only agentive, but also inchoative 209
- From completely free to complete freedom 225
- Romanian dependent numerals as ratios 245
- For an overt movement analysis of comparison at a distance in French 259
- The role of L2 exposure in L3A 279
- European Portuguese focalizing SER ‘to be’ 297
- Occitan, verb second and the Medieval Romance word order debate 315
- Language index 337
- Subject index 339
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- The spurious vs. dative problem 5
- Givenness and the difference between wh -fronted and wh -in-situ questions in Spanish 21
- The building blocks of Catalan ‘at least’ 41
- On ben in Trentino regional Italian 55
- Matrix complementisers and ‘speech act’ syntax 75
- External possession in Brazilian Portuguese 95
- Spanish adjectives are PathPs 111
- Additive and aspectual anche in Old Italian 127
- The acquisition of variation 143
- Exploring sociolinguistic discontinuity in a minority variety of French 159
- (And yet) another proposal for ser/estar 177
- Spanish estarse is not only agentive, but also inchoative 209
- From completely free to complete freedom 225
- Romanian dependent numerals as ratios 245
- For an overt movement analysis of comparison at a distance in French 259
- The role of L2 exposure in L3A 279
- European Portuguese focalizing SER ‘to be’ 297
- Occitan, verb second and the Medieval Romance word order debate 315
- Language index 337
- Subject index 339
