On the Topic of Pseudoclefts

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4238317
AutoresIman Paul (0000-0001-7528-0156, autor correspondente), Ileana Paul
Ano2008
Volume11
Fascículo1
Páginas91-124
Data de publicação2008-04-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSyntax (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1368-0005 • E-ISSN: 1467-9612
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-9612.2008.00104.x
OpenAlexW2147485593
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas6
Referências citadas26

This paper presents arguments in favor of a pseudocleft analysis of a certain class of sentences in Malagasy, despite the lack of an overt wh-element. It is shown that voice morphology on the verb creates an operator-variable relationship much like the one created by wh-movement in free relatives in English and other languages. The bulk of the paper argues in favor of an inversion analysis of specificational pseudoclefts in Malagasy: a predicate DP is fronted to a topic position from within a small clause constituent. Moreover, it is shown that the same inversion occurs in equative and specificational sentences in Malagasy, which suggests that these types of sentences share the same syntactic structure. The proposed analysis also provides support for the view that specificational pseudoclefts have a topic > focus structure, where the wh-clause has been overtly topicalized

Focus (optics · Inversion (geology · Linguistics · Natural language processing · Physics · Predicate (mathematical logic · Verb · Computer Science · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation