Caroline Féry and Shinichiro Ishihara proposes a model of how syntax and information structure (focus and givenness) shape prosody where prosodic phrasing and tonal effects are kept apart. It is argued that the prosodic effects of syntactic structure and those of information structure should be kept apart. It is shown that in German and Japanese, syntactic structure primarily influences prosodic phrasing, which we assume to be recursive. Information structure, on the other hand, influences tonal structure, keeping phrasing intact. In a comparison between the two languages, it becomes apparent that prosodic domains corresponding to focus and givenness domains are subject to tonal readjustments. A further point made in the chapter is that the amount of downstep and reset of register domains is language‐dependent.
Abstract. In this article, we propose that three types of focus constructions in Japanese—clefts, in‐situ focus, and sluicing/stripping—share the same underlying structure and are derived by syntactic “metamorphosis” from one structure to another. After revealing similarities between cleft constructions and in‐situ focus constructions, we specifically propose that the latter underlies the former, which is derived by a focus movement followed by a heavy remnant movement. It is shown that various properties of cleft constructions follow from the syntax of in‐situ focus constructions and movement operations. Then, it is further argued that cleft constructions underlie sluicing/stripping under certain conditions. The article also touches on the so‐called clausemate condition found in multiple cleft sentences. A new set of data will be presented that poses a problem for syntactic explanations of this effect.
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