Abstract
My goal in the present paper is to carry out an analysis of the syntactic and discourse properties of Information Focus (IF) in Southern Peninsular Spanish (SPS) and Standard Spanish (SS) varieties. Generally, it has been argued that IF tends to occur last in a sentence since new information is placed in final position, following the End-Focus Principle as well as the Nuclear Stress Principle (Zubizarreta 1998). Focus fronting has been hence reserved for those cases in which a clear contrast between two alternatives is established, namely Contrastive Focus (CF) and Mirative Focus (MF) (cf. Cruschina 2012). The starting hypothesis here is that IF can appear as a fronted element in a sentence and that SPS speakers show a higher degree of acceptability and grammaticality towards such constructions, as opposed to SS speakers. This points toward a certain degree of microparametric variation in Spanish syntax (an understudied area), which will be tested by means of a grammaticality judgement task run among both SPS and SS speakers.
Highlights
This paper explores the discourse-syntax properties of a specific type of focus construction in Spanish, namely Information Focus (IF) Fronting
It has been generally asserted that Spanish lacks this type of discourse-based movement on the basis that the focus found in the Left Periphery (LP) of a sentence always conveys some sort of contrast, thereby instantiating what is termed as Contrastive Focus (CF)
Figures include the number of speakers who gave a positive answer about the grammaticality of the relevant construction, alongside the percentage represented by this group of participants
Summary
This paper explores the discourse-syntax properties of a specific type of focus construction in Spanish, namely Information Focus (IF) Fronting. It has been generally asserted that Spanish lacks this type of discourse-based movement on the basis that the focus found in the Left Periphery (LP) of a sentence always conveys some sort of contrast, thereby instantiating what is termed as Contrastive Focus (CF). Cruschina (2012) explicitly groups Italian and Spanish together in that both can have Focus Fronting only if it bears a contrastive flavour, following. Rizzi (1997) for Italian, and Zubizarreta (1998, 1999) and López (2009) for Spanish.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
