3 Subject versus object clefts: A fresh perspective on a robust asymmetry
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Abstract
Cleft sentences constitute a form of focalization cross-linguistically. They come in different guises, though: either as new information clefts/NIC, or as contrastive/ corrective clefts/CC. Explicitly expressed in cartographic terms, this distinction corresponds to the different (specifier of) focus position that the clefted constituent occupies, either in the low vP-periphery or in the high left periphery of the clause. As for their linear word order, the two types of clefts are not distinguishable. New experimental evidence based on French highlights this fundamental distinction, thus confirming insights from previous work: whereas subject clefts can be NIC, object clefts cannot, even in a language like French, which widely exploits clefts as an answering strategy to new information questions. Intervention locality expressed in featural Relativized Minimality terms is the fundamental principled reason accounting for this robust asymmetry.
Abstract
Cleft sentences constitute a form of focalization cross-linguistically. They come in different guises, though: either as new information clefts/NIC, or as contrastive/ corrective clefts/CC. Explicitly expressed in cartographic terms, this distinction corresponds to the different (specifier of) focus position that the clefted constituent occupies, either in the low vP-periphery or in the high left periphery of the clause. As for their linear word order, the two types of clefts are not distinguishable. New experimental evidence based on French highlights this fundamental distinction, thus confirming insights from previous work: whereas subject clefts can be NIC, object clefts cannot, even in a language like French, which widely exploits clefts as an answering strategy to new information questions. Intervention locality expressed in featural Relativized Minimality terms is the fundamental principled reason accounting for this robust asymmetry.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- It-clefts: State-of-the-art, and some empirical challenges 1
- 1 Cleft wh-questions as biclausal structures 11
- 2 What is it that requires or constrains clefts? (Dis)Favouring factors for clefting in Germanic and Romance 35
- 3 Subject versus object clefts: A fresh perspective on a robust asymmetry 81
- 4 Making the case for distinguishing information structure from specification in English it-clefts 105
- 5 The emergence and early development of c’est ‘it is’ clefts in French L1 135
- 6 Distributed computational models of intervention effects: A study on cleft structures in French 157
- 7 It-cleft constructions in Réunion Creole 181
- 8 (It-)clefts in Palenquero Creole and the specificational copula 217
- 9 A cartographic approach to Chinese V de O clefts 235
- Index 257
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- It-clefts: State-of-the-art, and some empirical challenges 1
- 1 Cleft wh-questions as biclausal structures 11
- 2 What is it that requires or constrains clefts? (Dis)Favouring factors for clefting in Germanic and Romance 35
- 3 Subject versus object clefts: A fresh perspective on a robust asymmetry 81
- 4 Making the case for distinguishing information structure from specification in English it-clefts 105
- 5 The emergence and early development of c’est ‘it is’ clefts in French L1 135
- 6 Distributed computational models of intervention effects: A study on cleft structures in French 157
- 7 It-cleft constructions in Réunion Creole 181
- 8 (It-)clefts in Palenquero Creole and the specificational copula 217
- 9 A cartographic approach to Chinese V de O clefts 235
- Index 257
