Left peripheral focus: mismatches between syntax and information structure

Fanselow, Gisbert; Lenertová, Denisa

doi:10.1007/s11049-010-9109-x

Cited by 115 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…41 It is for this reason that structures like (43B) have been dubbed "partial focus movement" (Zimmermann 2007; see also Fanselow & Lenertová 2010). To put it differently, the answer (43B) apparently shows the coexistence of two overlapping foci: the broad focus required by question-answer congruence, and the narrow focus on the direct object which supports the mirative implicature.…”

Section: :36mentioning

confidence: 99%

Focus fronting, unexpectedness, and evaluative implicatures

Bianchi

Bocci

Cruschina

2016

S&P

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This paper discusses the fronting of a focal constituent to a clauseinitial position which, in various languages, is associated with an import of unexpectedness. We provide prosodic and syntactic evidence from Italian showing that this phenomenon has distinctive grammatical properties with respect to other instances of "focus fronting". We argue that the fronted constituent bears narrow focus, and that the unexpectedness import conveys that the asserted proposition is less likely than one or more distinct focus alternatives (see Grosz 2011). We characterize this import as a conventional implicature, and we argue that likelihood is interpreted with respect to an informative modal base which is shared by the conversational community (the context set). We show that the unexpectedness import expressed by a speaker can be accepted or rejected by the other discourse participants: thus, it qualifies as an evaluative commitment of the speaker and, when accepted by the interlocutors, it can give rise to a shared evaluation.

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Section: :36mentioning

confidence: 99%

Focus fronting, unexpectedness, and evaluative implicatures

Bianchi

Bocci

Cruschina

2016

S&P

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“…Our final problem for syntactic analyses of Ukrainian scrambling comes from work by Fanselow & Lenertová (2011). They point out that Czech and German have scrambling that is partial and optional, two properties that Ukrainian scrambling shares; the argue convincingly that neither is straightforwardly captured in a syntactic analysis.…”

Section: Scrambling Can Be Partial and Is Optionalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phonological Movement in Ukrainian

Teliga¹,

Agbayani²,

Golston

2016

AMP

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Extant accounts of scrambling in Ukrainian generally don’t extend past object- and other NP-related processes (Féry et al. 2007, Mykhaylyk 2010). Analysis of Slavic scrambling as XP movement (Corver 1992, Bošković 2005) runs into problems with split constituency, as does OT syntax (Gouskova 2001). Remnant movement (Sekerina 1997, Bašić 2004) runs afoul of Slavic data and theory too (Pereltsvaig 2008, Kariaeva 2009). Analyses that mix syntax with prosody (Antonyuk-Yudina & Mykhaylyk 2013; Mykhaylyk 2012) are more promising but also fail. Ukrainian scrambles only prosodic entities, ignores core principles of syntax, and respects core principles of phonology.The driving force behind the scrambling is not our focus here. It is generally assumed to be pragmatic in nature, based on things like topic, focus, and givenness (e.g., Féry et al. 2007). Fanselow & Lenertová have recently argued against this, however, and claim for most scrambling that ‘accentuation rather than informational status determines which categories can be fronted’ (2012:169); their findings support Chomsky’s (2008) view that information structure does not result in movement. We leave this to future research and focus here on which part of the grammar the movement takes place in. We propose that Ukrainian scrambling is phonological movement of exactly the sort found in Ancient Greek and Latin (Agbayani & Golston 2010, 2016), and similar to the more limited type found in Japanese (Agbayani, Golston & Ishii 2015) and Irish (Bennett, Elfner, & McCloskey 2016).

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“…There are many theoretical arguments against such an analysis (Fanselow and Lenertová 2011). Second, one could claim that the semantics of the whole particle verb is present on the particle and that adjuncts such as regelrecht then attach to particles.…”

Section: The Derivation Of Emphatic Fronting In Germanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Particle topicalization and German clause structure

Trotzke

Quaglia

2016

J Comp German Linguistics

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In this paper, we provide a comprehensive account of the phenomenon of topicalizing verb particles in German. Based on the data we discuss, we argue that only a version of the Split-CP hypothesis for the German clause can account for the observations. Section 1 critiques previous accounts of particle topicalization and discusses some properties of particles that are potentially relevant to topicalization. We conclude that a particle's ability to be topicalized depends more on its ability to be contrasted with other particles than on the semantic autonomy of the particle per se. Section 2 discusses unexpected cases of non-contrastable particles in the left periphery. In this context, we introduce a previously unnoticed phenomenon in which particle verbs denoting strongly emotionally evaluated situations allow their particles to be topicalized, even if the particle does not receive a contrastive interpretation. In Sect. 3, we show that an elaborated syntax of the German left periphery of the kind argued for in cartographic approaches is uniquely able to predict the distribution of topicalized particles.

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Left peripheral focus: mismatches between syntax and information structure

Cited by 115 publications

References 59 publications

Focus fronting, unexpectedness, and evaluative implicatures

Focus fronting, unexpectedness, and evaluative implicatures

Phonological Movement in Ukrainian

Particle topicalization and German clause structure

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