Discourse, sentence grammar and the left periphery of the clause

Abstract

The term left periphery refers to that area on the left of the subject, in the syntactic representation of a clause, where the relationships with the context are encoded. In this work I propose a syntactic analysis that goes beyond mere sentence grammar and integrates prosodic and discourse features as well. On the one hand, this move accounts for some observations previously not fully understood, such as the anomalous syntactic properties of Clitic Left Dislocation and Hanging Topic, their differences with respect to Focus and their similarities with parentheticals. On the other, it aims at providing a theory of grammar able to encode the relationships between sentence grammar, context and bigger units such as discourses. prosody. In section 5, I contrast Clitic Left Dislocation with another kind of topic, the so-called Hanging Topic, and propose a syntactic representation extending the boundaries of syntax to include features connected to the discourse. 2 The syntax of the left periphery of the clause According to the Government and Binding paradigm developed by Chomsky (1981), a sentence is a predicative structure, where subject and predicate are connected by means of so-called functional projections. A typical sentence has the following structure, where I stands for Inflection, i.e. the temporal, modal, and agreement properties connected with the verb: 2 (1) [ IP NP [ I [ VP V ]]] The subject-in representation (1) a Noun Phrase, NP-is connected to the predicate-in this case a Verb Phrase, VP-by means of Inflection. Hence, according to X-bar theory, the subject is the specifier of the Inflection and the predicate is its complement. 3 In the Government and Binding framework, only one head position is available on the left of the subject and only one maximal projection position, i.e. only one position where a phrase can appear. The structure available in this framework is therefore the following: (2) [ CP XP [ C [ IP NP [ I … C is a head position, occupied in subordinate clauses by the complementizer head, for instance that, as in the following example: 2 These are to be understood as abstract properties, universally represented, even if languages might differ in the way they realize them. 3 X-bar theory was firstly proposed in the 70's, see among the others Chomsky (1970) and Jackendoff (1977). In this work I will not discuss the arguments in favor, or against, this syntactic representation. Let me just point out that more recently, several aspects of X-bar theory have been deeply revised, to account for further empirical observations, see the anti-symmetrical proposal by Kayne (1994). (3) John thinks that Mary is a genius That occupies the C position in the subordinate clause. The specifier position of C can be occupied by embedded wh-phrases, as in the following case: (4) John wonders which boy Mary met In English, C is also the landing site of Verbs and auxiliaries in interrogative inversion, as in the following example: (5) What did you eat? Did occupies the C position and what its specifier. The specifier ...