Frasi Scisse e "Small Clauses". Un'analisi dell'inglese

Abstract

Cleft constructions constitute a difficult challenge for linguistic analysis, due both to the cross-linguistic variety of their realisations and to the peculiar syntactic and semantic effects they display. Following recent proposals on copular sentences within the Minimalist framework, the present paper offers an analysis of the cleft construction as a Small Clause whose constituents are, on the one hand, a relative clause headed by a Null Operator and, on the other hand, the cleft constituent. Syntactic evidence is provided that the cleft constituent is an Identificational Focus, which Operator-moves to the Specifier of the Focus Phrase projection in order to check the Focus ([+F]) feature with the matrix copula and identify (i.e., assign a value to) the Null Operator within the relative clause. This analysis is consistent with minimalist tenets insofar as movement operations are only driven by morphological requirements, necessary for interface interpretation, and includes cleft constituents within the current analysis of (narrow) Focus as a feature-checking operation. The investigation is mainly focused on English, however cross-linguistic considerations are also present in order to test and support the validity of the analysis proposed.