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The architecture of it-clefts1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 April 2013

LILIANE HAEGEMAN ,
ANDRÉ MEINUNGER  and
ALEKSANDRA VERCAUTEREN
LILIANE HAEGEMAN*
Affiliation:
Ghent University
ANDRÉ MEINUNGER*
Affiliation:
ZAS Berlin
ALEKSANDRA VERCAUTEREN*
Affiliation:
Ghent University & Universidade Nova de Lisboa
*
Author's address: (Haegeman) Linguistics Department, Ghent University, Blandijnberg 3, 9000 Gent, Belgium[email protected]
(Meinunger) Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Schützenstr. 18, D-10117 Berlin, Germany[email protected]
(Vercauteren) Linguistics Department (GIST), Ghent University, Muinkkaai 42, 9000 Gent, Belgium[email protected]
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Abstract

This paper examines quasi-monoclausal left-peripheral analyses of English it-clefts. Though attractive because such analyses bring out commonalities between it-clefts on the one hand and focus fronting and wh-questions on the other, the range of word order variations available in English it-clefts reveals that such monoclausal analyses of it-clefts lead to considerable complications of implementation, ultimately undoing the gain in terms of economy that initially would seem to justify them. In particular, we will show that, on closer inspection, the presumed focus fronting in it-clefts cannot be targeting the position deployed for ‘regular’ left-peripheral focus fronting. Moreover, both implementations of the monoclausal analysis discussed make the wrong predictions with respect to the distribution of it-clefts. In particular, as already argued by Hooper & Thompson (1973) and Emonds (1976), English it-clefting, unlike ‘regular’ focus fronting, is not a main clause phenomenon. Given these objections, we conclude that the left-peripheral analyses of it-clefts are ill-founded.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , July 2014 , pp. 269 - 296
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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Footnotes

[1]

Liliane Haegeman's research is funded by FWO: 2009-Odysseus-Haegeman-G091409. André Meinunger's work was supported (in part) by Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) (Grant Nr. 01UG0711). Aleksandra Vercauteren's research is funded by FWO grant FWO11/ASP/258.

This paper was presented at the linguistics departments of the University of Geneva and of the University of Verona, at the LAGB 2011 (September, Manchester) and at Going Romance 2012 (December, Leuven). Thanks to the audiences and to David Adger, Adriana Belletti, Carsten Breul, Denis Delfitto, Karen Lahousse, Neil Smith, Genoveva Puskas, Matthew Reeve, Amélie Rocquet and Ur Shlonsky for discussion. Thanks to three anonymous referees of Journal of Linguistics for thorough and thought-provoking comments. On the basis of their comments and extensive suggestions we have been able to sharpen our minds about the core issues of our paper. Obviously, they are not responsible for the way we have used their comments.

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