Contrastive focalization on topics and preverbal subjects in italian: ayntax free prosodic focalization or syntactic movement to focp?

In this paper, I will confront the split CP model (Rizzi 1997 and subsequent work) and the criterial framework proposed by Rizzi (2004c) with two empirical problems. Firstly, I will consider a peculiar Italian construction (see (1)b), previously described and analysed by Beninca (1988:137-139 and 2001) and Beninca and Poletto (2004), which seems to mix up the interpretative and prosodic properties of contrastive focus and the syntactic ones of ClLDed topics (Beninca 1988, Cinque 1990, Rizzi 1997). In (1)b, the fronted direct object (henceforth DO) is characterized by contrastive focus prosody and interpretation and it is resumed by a clitic.

[1]  C. Poletto,et al.  "Rhetorical" wh-phrases in the left periphery of the sentence , 2000 .

[2]  K. Kiss.  Identificational focus versus information focus , 1998 .

[3]  C. Cecchetto.  A comparative analysis of left and right dislocation in Romance , 1999 .

[4]  C. Poletto,et al.  Topic, Focus and V2: defining the CP sublayers , 2004 .

[5]  M. Zubizarreta.  Prosody, Focus, and Word Order , 1998 .

[6]  Liliane Haegeman,et al.  Topicalization, CLLD and the left periphery. , 2004 .

[7]  No Value.  Proceedings of the 14th international congress of phonetic sciences , 2000 .

[8]  Karlos Arregi,et al.  Clitic Left Dislocation is Contrastive Topicalization , 2003 .

[9]  G. Bocci,et al.  Focus Contrastivo nella periferia sinistra della frase: un solo accento, ma non solo un accento , 2006 .

[10]  Luigi Rizzi,et al.  Issues in Italian Syntax , 1981 .

[11]  Guglielmo Cinque,et al.  Types of Ā-dependencies , 1990 .

[12]  G. Cinque.  Adverbs and functional heads , 1999 .

[13]  Adriana Belletti,et al.  Inversion » as focalization and related questio * , 2000 .

[14]  Jean-Yves Pollock,et al.  Subject Inversion in Romance and the Theory of Universal Grammar , 2001 .

[15]  L. Lonzi.  Intonazione contrastiva e strutture di base , 2006 .

[16]  G. Salvi,et al.  Current Studies in Italian Syntax , 2001 .

[17]  Pilar Prieto,et al.  The Syntax-Phonology Interface in Focus and Topic Constructions in Italian , 2005 .

[18]  Guglielmo Cinque,et al.  Sull'ordine delle parole in italiano: l'emarginazione , 1977 .

[19]  Cecilia Poletto,et al.  Ways of Clausal Typing , 2002 .

[20]  G. Cinque.  Adverbs and Functional Heads: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective , 1999 .

[21]  Daniel Büring,et al.  The Meaning of Topic and Focus: The 59th Street Bridge Accent , 1997 .

[22]  Adriana Belletti,et al.  The order of verbal complements: A comparative study , 1995 .

[23]  Cinzia Avesani,et al.  Broad, narrow and contrastive focus in Florentine Italian , 2003 .

[24]  Josef Bayer,et al.  Asymmetry in Emphatic Topicalization , 2001 .

[25]  Adriana Belletti,et al.  Structures and beyond , 2004 .

[26]  Anna Cardinaletti,et al.  A Second Thought on Emarginazione: Destressing vs. “Right Dislocation” , 2001, Current Studies in Italian Syntax.

[27]  A. Cardinaletti.  Subjects and clause structure , 1996 .

[28]  Liliane Haegeman,et al.  Notes on Long Adverbial Fronting in English and the Left Periphery , 2003, Linguistic Inquiry.

[29]  Jean-Yves Pollock,et al.  On the Left Periphery of Some Romance Wh-Questions , 2000 .

[30]  Luigi Rizzi,et al.  Locality and Left Periphery , 2004 .

[31]  CARLO CECCHETTO,et al.  Doubling structures and reconstruction , 2000 .

[32]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  The Minimalist Program , 1992 .

[33]  Mara Frascarelli,et al.  "Dislocation, Clitic Resumption and Minimality: A comparative analysis of left and right Topic constructions in Italian." , 2004 .

[34]  Andrea Calabrese.  Alcune ipotesi sulla struttura informazionale della frase in italiano e sul suo rapporto con la struttura fonologica , 1982 .

[35]  A. Belletti.  «Inversion» as focalization and related questions , 1999 .

[36]  A. Belletti.  Structures and Beyond. The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, vol.3 , 2004 .

[37]  Anna Cardinaletti,et al.  Toward a cartography of subject positions , 2004 .

[38]  Maria Vilkuna,et al.  On Rheme and Kontrast , 1998 .

[39]  I. Roberts,et al.  Head Movement , 2020, An Introduction to English Sentence Structure.

[40]  A. Cardinaletti.  Against optional and null clitics. Right dislocation vs. marginalization , 2002 .

[41]  Anca-Marina Velicu,et al.  THE STRUCTURE OF CP AND IP THE CARTOGRAPHY OF SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES , 2005 .

[42]  L. Rizzi.  The Fine Structure of the Left Periphery , 1997 .

[43]  Lisa Brunetti,et al.  A Unification of Focus , 2004 .

[44]  Luigi Rizzi,et al.  On the Form of Chains: Criterial Positions and ECP Effects. , 2006 .

[45]  Mürvet Enç.  The semantics of specificity , 1991 .