Italian clefts and the licensing of infinitival subject relatives

Open Access
Authors
Publication date 2013
Host editors
  • K. Hartmann
  • T. Veenstra
Book title Cleft structures
ISBN
  • 9789027255914
Series Linguistik Aktuell, 208
Pages (from-to) 319-342
Number of pages 24
Publisher Amsterdam: John Benjamins
Organisations
  • Faculty of Humanities (FGw) - Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research (AIHR) - Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication (ACLC)
Abstract This paper investigates the licensing of infinitival subject relative clauses by clefted constituents. It is claimed that in Italian clefted constituents license infinitival subject relatives because in this language clefts function as contrastive foci. This claim is supported by the syntactic analysis of the position of clefted constituents that license infinitival subject relatives in Italian. It is argued that they occupy a left-peripheral Focus position in the clause. On the basis of extraction data, it is argued that the infinitival subject relative itself is a complement.
Document type Chapter
Language English
Published at https://doi.org/10.1075/la.208.12sle
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