The Focus-background articulation in Spanish qualitative binominal NPs
Villalba, Xavier 1969- (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Filologia Catalana)

Date:	2008
Abstract:	The goal of this article is to show that, unlike recent analyses of the qualitative binominal NP construction (QBNP) that idiot of a doctor/el idiota del médico, Spanish QBNPs require an analysis with the following features: (i) the definite article preceding the subject nominal is a fully-fledged determiner, (ii) the predicate-subject final word order is the consequence of predicate focus fronting, (iii) the subject receives background interpretation, and (iv) as a consequence of its interpretation as background, the subject of the construction must be specific, which explains the apparently syntactic restrictions on the size of the nominals occurring in this position. This proposal is shown to extend straightforwardly to a kindred Spanish nominalizing construction, yielding a better understanding of the role of focus in DP structure.
Grants:	Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia HUM2006-13295-C02-01/FILO Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2005/SGR-00753
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Published in:	Journal of Portuguese Linguistics, Vol. 7, núm. 2 (2008) , p. 131-149, ISSN 1645-4537

Adreça alternativa: https://jpl·letras.ulisboa.pt/articles/abstract/10.5334/jpl.131/
Adreça alternativa: https://search.proquest.com/docview/85702851?accountid=14708 https://sfx.upf.edu/upf/?url{\_}ver=Z39.88-2004{\}rft{\_}val{\_}fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal{\}genre=article{\}sid=ProQ:ProQ{\%}3Allbashell{\}atitle=The+Focus-Background+Articulation+in+Spanish+Qualitative+Binomi
DOI: 10.5334/jpl.131

19 p, 322.0 KB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Arts and Humanities > Center for Theoretical Linguistics (CLT)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles