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Chapitre D'ouvrage Année : 2018

Subjects and focus in clefts: The case of Tilapa Otomi

Enrique L Palancar
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Résumé

This paper is an exploration of the syntax-pragmatics interface in the pseudo-clefts of Tilapa Otomi, an Oto-Manguean language of Mexico. The goal of this paper is to show that the focus phrase in the clefts of Tilapa Otomi is the subject of the cleft construction, which is entirely based on the copular construction. This claim has a theoretical interest because the alignment of focus and subject has been tainted as problematic in certain approaches to clefts that want the subject to be the topic. The subject in clefts in Tilapa Otomi conveys contrastive focus, but clefts in Tilapa Otomi may also be used as thetic constructions to express broad focus, in which case it is the whole clause that is in focus.

Domaines

Linguistique
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Dates et versions

hal-02008976 , version 1 (06-02-2019)

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  • HAL Id : hal-02008976 , version 1

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Enrique L Palancar. Subjects and focus in clefts: The case of Tilapa Otomi. Information Structure in Lesser-described Languages: Studies in prosody and syntax, 2018. ⟨hal-02008976⟩
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