The present study aims at investigating the prosodic realization of Italian cleft sentences, in order to provide some new cues for their still debated syntactic interpretation. A monoclausal approach to the analysis of cleft sentences (a.o. Meinunger, 1998) parallels them to left focalization constructions, while a biclausal approach (a.o. Belletti, 2008) considers them composed of a main copular clause and an embedded pseudo-relative clause. A systematic comparison between cleft sentences and left focalizations - carried out through an experimental study and an analysis of pitch accent distribution, scaling, and prosodic phrasing - leads to conclude that their prosodic realization is very similar, thus suggesting that a monoclausal analysis for cleft sentences is supported by prosodic data.
Is it prosody that settles the syntactic issue? An analysis of Italian cleft sentences
Avesani C;
2018
Abstract
The present study aims at investigating the prosodic realization of Italian cleft sentences, in order to provide some new cues for their still debated syntactic interpretation. A monoclausal approach to the analysis of cleft sentences (a.o. Meinunger, 1998) parallels them to left focalization constructions, while a biclausal approach (a.o. Belletti, 2008) considers them composed of a main copular clause and an embedded pseudo-relative clause. A systematic comparison between cleft sentences and left focalizations - carried out through an experimental study and an analysis of pitch accent distribution, scaling, and prosodic phrasing - leads to conclude that their prosodic realization is very similar, thus suggesting that a monoclausal analysis for cleft sentences is supported by prosodic data.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
