The grammatical reflexes of emphasis: Evidence from German wh-questions

J Comp German Linguistics

Quaglia

2016

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In this paper, we provide a comprehensive account of the phenomenon of topicalizing verb particles in German. Based on the data we discuss, we argue that only a version of the Split-CP hypothesis for the German clause can account for the observations. Section 1 critiques previous accounts of particle topicalization and discusses some properties of particles that are potentially relevant to topicalization. We conclude that a particle's ability to be topicalized depends more on its ability to be contrasted with other particles than on the semantic autonomy of the particle per se. Section 2 discusses unexpected cases of non-contrastable particles in the left periphery. In this context, we introduce a previously unnoticed phenomenon in which particle verbs denoting strongly emotionally evaluated situations allow their particles to be topicalized, even if the particle does not receive a contrastive interpretation. In Sect. 3, we show that an elaborated syntax of the German left periphery of the kind argued for in cartographic approaches is uniquely able to predict the distribution of topicalized particles.

Section: The Derivation Of Emphatic Fronting In Germansupporting

confidence: 70%

Section: The Derivation Of Emphatic Fronting In Germanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Particle topicalization and German clause structure

J Comp German Linguistics

Quaglia

2016

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“…An exhaustive discussion of the phonetic manifestation of emphasis for intensity would go far beyond the scope of this article; yet it is worth observing that some of the phenomena discussed here feature systematic phonetic correlates, such as lengthening of the onset duration of fricatives or the accented vowel (see Trotzke & Turco, on wh ‐questions in German). Accordingly, we suggest that there is much to gain from further exploring the differences and the similarities between the strategies whereby emphasis for intensity can be conveyed, as well as from zeroing in on the possible ways in which emphasis and scalarity can be linked to one another in different realms of linguistic analysis, including phonetics and phonology.…”

Section: Conclusion: Emphasis For Intensity In a Broader Picturementioning

confidence: 99%

Conveying emphasis for intensity: Lexical and syntactic strategies

Beltrama

Language and Linguist. Compass

2019

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Emphasis is a widely investigated notion in linguistics. In this article, we focus on emphasis for intensity, a general linguistic strategy whereby linguistic objects are given prominence by virtue of being selected from the upper range of a scale. We consider two linguistic domains where emphasis for intensity can be observed: the lexical domain, where it is conveyed via a variety of intensifiers, and the domain of syntax, where it can be conveyed via different types of non-canonical word order. While distinct in many respects, such families of constructions can be seen as conveying a unified effect, raising a number of issues concerning how the relation between emphasis and scalarity is best captured across languages and constructions.

“…Rather, this profile can also be the result of syntactic operations in the domain of marked word order. For instance, Trotzke & Turco (2015) provide experimental evidence that onsets and vocalic nuclei of wh-elements in German display augmentation features of emotive speech only in expressive constructions involving left peripheral discourse particles (1) and not in cases of marked word order featuring other (non-expressive) forms of co-constituency in the left periphery of the clause (2):…”

Section: The Emotive Use As a Secondary Use Of Languagementioning

confidence: 99%

A note on the emotive origins of syntax

2019

ELT

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In this note, I ask what (if any) linguistic means above the word level might have already been in place before our full-blown syntactic capacity involving recursive Merge has evolved. I argue that the ‘pre-Merge era’ might have been characterized by paratactic emotive utterances comparable to root small clauses in modern languages. At the end of this contribution, this new emotive perspective on so-called ‘living linguistic fossils’ is extended to the core syntactic property of displacement, which features an augmentation strategy in the form of multiple copies that is reminiscent of doubling and reduplication processes involved in conveying expressive meaning components.