Description

• Title:
  On focus marking and predication. Evidence from Polish with some notes on Hausa
• Creator:
  Tajsner, Przemysław
• Description:
  The primary aim of the paper is to provide a new, derivational analysis of two types of Polish sentences with the occurrence of a particle to, which syntactically code focus and topic. These are: to-clefts (To Janek napisał list. ‘It was Janek who wrote the letter’), and topic-to sentences (Janek to napisał list. ‘As for Janek, he wrote the letter’). The secondary aim is to reflect on the relevance of the isomorphism of focus markers and non-verbal copulas in Polish with some reference to Hausa. Method: The approach follows a minimalist method but departs from cartographic accounts with dedicated heads in sentence left-periphery. Instead, it postulates that focus and topic are interpretive byeffects of Specification Predication. In this, the paper extends and modifies Kiss’s (2006, 2010) central idea that focusing is predication. Result & Conclusion: The account proves successful in explaining a few syntactic constraints, doing so in a simple, unitary fashion. Viewing focus as a derivative of predication is a step towards understanding the relation between narrow syntax and information structure. 
• Object availability:
  free access
• Rights: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 ;
  Prawa autorskie (c) 2015 Przemysław Tajsner
• Date:
  2015.06.01
• Type:
  info:eu-repo/semantics/article;
  info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
• Language:
  English
• Source:
  Lingua Posnaniensis; Vol. 57 No. 1; 113-138;
  Lingua Posnaniensis; Tom 57 Nr 1; 113-138;
  2083-6090;
  0079-4740
• Format:
  application/pdf
• Publisher:
  Adam Mickiewicz University Poznan
• Relation: http://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/linpo/article/view/linpo-2015-0006/28507
• Subject:
  focus;
  predication;
  topic;
  derivation;
  cartography
• Identifier: http://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/linpo/article/view/linpo-2015-0006
• Data provider:
  Platforma Otwartych Czasopism Naukowych UAM
• Can I use it?:
  seek permission
• Type:
  text