English/Spanish syntactic contrasts: minimalism and optimality

This paper presents an Optimality-Theoretic analysis of presentational focus on pre-nominal modifiers in Spanish. In particular, it argues that evidence from contexts putting focus on a pre-nominal number or other modifier should lead us to revise how we conceptualize constraints on stress-focus correspondence. It proposes that, rather than an absolute requirement that stress and focus correspond, stress and focus must be aligned as closely as possible.

2022

Spanish Verbalisations and the Internal Structure of Lexical Predicates provides the first comprehensive and empirically detailed theoretical analysis of the different ways in which Spanish builds verbs from nouns and adjectives. This book poses questions about the nature of theme vowels, parasynthesis and the structural relation between the three major lexical word classes from within a Neo-Constructionist framework that highlights the correlations between the syntactic and semantic behaviour of verbs and their morphological make up. Provided within are detailed empirical descriptions of each of the nine major ways of building lexical verbs in Spanish, as well as an integral analysis of those patterns that shows the significance of the contrast between them and their uses to address some foundational questions in morphological theory. Spanish Verbalisations will be of particular interest to researchers in formal linguistics and Spanish.

Lingua, 2017

This work introduces a subset of informational features (termed core intentional features), different from standard pragmatic features such as topic and focus. Adopting the basic tenets of the Minimalist program, core intentional features are defined as edge features which sit in the relevant phases and are subject to parametric variation. They are assumed to drive the derivation of the sentence so that it constitutes an intentionally-adequate object (i.e. a categorical or a thetic statement) even in the absence of a particular communicative situation. The paper specifically focuses on one of these features, [DI] (discourse intention), and on how it determines the eventual position of the subject in a discourse-prominent language such as Spanish. A preliminary distinction is made between sentences that inaugurate the discourse (d-sentences) and sentences which are integrated in a particular context (context-dependent sentences). It is argued that the SV/VS order in Spanish follows from the conditions of valuation of [DI] in each case; in particular, valuation of [DI] in d-sentences will be a matter of structural and semantic prominence whereas in context-dependent sentences it will depend on pragmatic conditions. The paper also addresses a number of significant contrasts in the much-debated issue of the placement of the subject in Spanish, which receive a principled explanation under the theory of core intentional features proposed here.

Heidinger, Steffen. 2013. Information focus, syntactic weight and postverbal constituent order in Spanish. Borealis – An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics 2(2). 159–190., 2013

In Spanish, postverbal constituents -such as direct object, locative adjunct or depicitive -can be ordered in different ways (e.g. Juan bailó desnudo en su casa vs. Juan bailó en su casa desnudo). The present paper examines two possible factors for postverbal constituent order: information focus and syntactic weight. Based on data from a perception experiment it will be shown that information focus and syntactic weight indeed influence in postverbal constituent order in Spanish: both the focalization of a constituent and the increase of the weight of a constituent increase the frequency with which the respective constituent takes up the sentence final position. As concerns the strength of the two factors, our results suggest that information focus and syntactic weight influence in postverbal constituent order to a similar extent. As concerns the syntatic position of narrow information focus in Spanish, our results show that the sentence final position is the preferred position for narrowly focused constituents, but such constituents are not limited to the sentence final position.

2016

This paper discusses agreement patterns of SE sentences in different Spanish dialects. Special attention is paid to situations where the verb agrees with Case-marked internal arguments (cf. Torrego 1998, López 2012) bypassing the preposition (e.g., Se ayudaron a los banqueros, Eng. ‘Bankers were helped’), and to a previously unnoticed case in which agreement occurs across a non-clitic related preposition (e.g., Se saben de diversos factores, Eng. ‘Different factors are known’). A micro-parametric approach is put forward whereby two functional elements hold the key to accounting for the facts: on the one hand, the feature specification of v and T (the locus of structural Case) may vary, and, on the other, the precise nature of what we label “P” may range over three possible manifestations: (i) a bona fide preposition, (ii) an applicative element (potentially associated to a clitic), and (iii) the spell-out of a feature within a given functional category.This paper discusses agreement...

The Linguist List 17.383, 2006

Revista Virtual de Estudos da Linguagem 8: 134-154, 2011

This paper addresses the problem of the nature of the input in Optimality Theoretic syntax, in the context of recent works that have argued that (in contrast with OT phonology) OT syntax can eliminate faithfulness constraints, the input, or both. This paper challenges this view and argues in favor of a fully structured input and constraints that target the feature content of the input. While this paper agrees with the general view that the truth-conditional properties of the input must be preserved by the candidate set, it provides evidence that this is not the case for Information Structure (IS) features. It is argued that dialectal variation in the word order properties of Spanish infinitival clauses shows that candidates can be unfaithful to the IS feature [topic], and that this has very palpable effects on the word order of these constructions. It is argued that the observed dialectal variation can be straightforwardly accounted for in a Classic OT analysis with fully structured inputs and faithfulness constraints.

El presente artículo trata dos áreas de investigación que normalmente se abordan por separado: el análisis de la variación sintáctica y el de la gramática del inglés hablado. Los análisis variacionistas han prestado más atención a la variación fonética y fonológica que a las sintácticas, en buena medida porque las variables fonológicas suelen ser más habituales que las sintácticas. A su vez, esto, junto con el hecho de que las formas sintácticas variables normalmente desempeñan unas funciones pragmáticas específicas en la conversación, nos ha llevado a pensar que las variables sintácticas no suelen diferenciar grupos sociales como las fonológicas. Sin embargo, el análisis de la distribución social de una construcción sintáctica variable puede arrojar luz sobre la naturaleza de su función pragmática, y, en ocasiones, nos ayuda a avanzar en nuestro conocimiento sobre los aspectos de la lengua en uso. Esto se demuestra aquí con el ejemplo de la concordancia sujeto-verbo en las estructu...

Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America, 2019

We provide an account of the synchronic variation between the use of the Simple Present marker [Verb-a] and the Present Progressive marker [estar + Verb-ndo] in the expression of the habitual reading in Modern Spanish. Results from an acceptability judgment task in three distinct dialectal varieties (Rioplatense Spanish, Iberian Spanish, and Mexican Altiplano Spanish) show: (a) the presence of variation across dialects, (b) that this variation is constrained by a grammaticalization path, the Progressive-to-Imperfective shift, and (c) that a generalization process is already underway in all three different dialects but at different degrees of progress: more conservative in the Rioplatense and Iberian varieties, and less so in the Mexican Altiplano one. Specifically, our results show that whereas the Simple Present is the preferred form to express the habitual reading, the Present Progressive marker is already available to convey this reading in the three dialectal varieties. However,...

… Wöllstein-Leisten & Claudia Maienborn (Hgg …, 2005

Ser and estar: The syntax of stage level and individual level predicates in Spanish * Studying the relevant works concerning the distinction between stage level and individual level predicates (SLP/ILP) in linguistics, one often encounters references to the Spanish copular verbs ser and estar (e.g. . In these copular verbs, the SLP/ILP-distinction seems to find its overt realization. The use of the verb ser is usually connected to ILP-characteristics, the use of estar to the SLP-phenomenon. We propose a minimalist account for the differences in semantic and syntactic behaviour of ser/estar (following Chomsky 1995). Contrary to Kratzer (1995), we assume an implicitly realized event argument for both SLPs and ILPs, which characterizes the spatiotemporal reference of the situation or eventuality expressed by the predicate (cf. Davidson 1967). This event position is localized in the predication phrase PrP as proposed by . The PrP represents an extension of the VP-shell analysis (s. Larson 1988) to non-verbal predication, as found in copulative constructions. We assume that complex interactions between the features of the Pr-head and the features of the minimalist T° (I°) (and probably also the C°) will result in either the SLP or the ILP interpretation. The Spanish data concerning ser and estar allow us to analyse the syntactical conditions which lead to the SLP/ILP-distinction, making the correlation between syntactic and semantic behaviour evident. We propose that both ser and estar are syntactical default strategies (last resort). If the predicate is a SLP and no verb is available in the numeration, then estar will be introduced into the derivation under Pr°. If the predicate is an ILP and no verb is available in the numeration, then ser will be merged under T°. Quantificational approaches to times, especially reference time are also taken into consideration. Where the SLP/ILP-distinction is not expressed syntactically (by ser or estar) we assume that the chosen interpretation results from spatiotemporal knowledge of the world, i.e. it is conditioned by pragmatics (s.