Information Structure and Exclamative Force in Spanish DP Predicate-Inversion
Constructions
Information structure and Exclamative Force in Spanish DP
Anna Bartra & Xavier Villalba, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
1. Goal. This paper brings new evidence to the fore for a finer-grained architecture of
the DP domain, capable of expressing both the information structure articulation and the
formal encoding of the exclamative force, along the lines suggested by Aboh 2004,
Giusti 1996, and Haegeman 2004. To justify such a proposal, we analyse a Spanish
nominal construction —“lo-de”—, without Romance counterpart:
(1) Me sorprendió
lo alto de la
niña ‘It struck me how tall the girl was’
to.me struck
LO tall of the
girl
In section 2, we show that this construction is an instance of predicate inversion, strictly
parallel to (comparative) qualitative binominal noun phrases (QBNPs) (Den Dikken
2006):
(2) Conocí al
granuja del
alcalde. ‘I met that crook of a mayor.’
met.I
to.the crook
of.the mayor
In section 3, we will analyse predicate inversion in Spanish lo-de as A’-movement to
FocusP. Finally, in section 4, we propose that the exclamative force of this construction
follows from a null degree operator selecting the predicate, which is responsible of the
disagreement pattern.
2. Lo-de and comparative QBNPs. We analyse the lo-de construction in parallel to
Den Dikken 2006’s analysis of comparative QBNPs, namely as involving predicative
inversion. Here we describe the major common properties justifying such a move:
2.1. De is not a true P, hence the de+DP sequence cannot be moved:
(3) a. *¿De qué niña te extrañó lo alto? b. *¿De qué alcalde conociste al granuja?
of what girl to.you struck LO tall
of which mayor met.you to.the crook
2.2. Both constructions involve a high degree interpretation, which makes them
incompatible with extreme degree quantificational structures, like superlatives:
(4) a. lo *más alto/??altísimo de la niña b. el *más granuja/??granujísimo del alcalde
LO most tall/tall.MAX of the girl
the most crook/crook.MAX of.the mayor.”
2.3. Both constructions are islands for extraction:
(5) a. *¿En qué asunto te extrañó lo mezquino de su interés?
in what matter to you struck LO mean of his interest
b. *¿De qué ciudad conociste al granuja del alcalde?
of which city met.you to.the crook of.the mayor
3. Information structure and predicate inversion. Despite we stick on Den Dikken
2006 analysis of comparative QBNPs in terms of predicate inversion for lo-de, we
depart from his claim that the DP subject receives a focus interpretation, whereas the
inverted predicate is interpreted as topic. This claim does not hold for Spanish, as made
clear by the impossibility of having typically focus elements in the subject position, like
wh-in situ, and DPs associated with sólo ‘only’:
(6) a. *Te extrañó lo alto de qué niña/de sólo aquella niña.
to.you struck LO tall of which girl/of only that girl
b. *No hablaste con el granuja de qué alcalde/de sólo aquel alcalde.
not talked.you with the crook of which mayor/of only that mayor”
Notably, this line of analysis explains the otherwise surprising ban against strong
pronouns found in both constructions:
(7) a. *Me sorprendió lo alto de ella. b. *Hablé con el granuja de él.
to.me surprised LO tall of her
talked.I with the crook
of him
Since strong pronouns in Spanish are typically associated with a contrastive use (see
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Information Structure and Exclamative Force in Spanish DP Predicate-Inversion
Constructions
Rigau 1988, Picallo 1994), we expect them to be disfavoured in the topic position.
4. FocusP in predicate-inverted DPs. In agreement with the data in section 2, we
assume the following underlying structure for lo-de. The DegP, headed by a null
exclamative degree operator OP[+excl] (see section 5), selects the AP, and forms a small
clause with the DP, headed by a relator R in Den Dikken 2006 sense (cf. Corver 2000):
(8) [RP [DP la niña] [R’ R [DegP OP[+excl] [AP alto]]]]
In this configuration, OP[+excl], which lacks phi-features, counts as an intervener for the
agree operation between the subject DP and the predicate, forcing the unmarked
masculine singular form, and the characteristic disagreement pattern of the construction.
Then predicate inversion applies for allowing the predicate to check its focus feature in
the Spec of Foc(us)P, in accordance with the evidence presented in section 3 (cf. Den
Dikken 2006):
(9) [FocP [DegP OP[+excl] [AP alto]] [Foc’ R+Foc(=de) [RP [DP la niña] [R’ tR tDegP ]]]]
Since we consider this movement to be a standard A’-movement, the focused predicate
becomes an intervener for further A’-extraction, i.e. the structure is an island (2.3).
Note as well that the sequence de+DP is an intermediate projection (=Foc’), hence it
fails the standard tests for constituency (2.1).
5. The exclamative force. Beyond its information structure, lo-de is interesting for its
being a nominal construction selected by verbs that convey an exclamatory meaning, as
sorprender ‘surprise’ or extrañar ‘astonish’, which, in accordance with the high degree
interpretation ( 2.2), suggests the necessity of encoding the exclamative force in a
position available to external selection. Following Aboh 2004, we will argue that D
corresponds to Force in the DP domain, so that it encodes the exclamative feature
through spec-head agreement with OP[+excl]:
(10) [DP OP[+excl] [D’ D[+excl] [FocP [DegP tDegP [AP alto]] [Foc’ R+Foc(=de) [RP [DP la niña] [R’
tR tDegP ]]]]
Since OP[+excl] lacks phi-features, the D ends up as the neuter determiner lo, which is
underspecified for gender and number. Support for this analysis comes from the
comparison with QBNPs, which are not selected by exclamative verbs, and show DPAP agreement. Crucially, we will show that QBNPs lack OP[+excl], and they are
inherently quantified, as their lexically restricted productivity suggests:
(11) el idiota/corrupto/loco/*malo/*pomposo/*peligroso/*fiero del alcalde
the fool/crook/madman/bad/pompous/dangerous/vicious of.the mayor
6. Conclusions. In this paper, we have presented strong evidence from exclamative
predicate-inverted DPs that the architecture of the DP domain should encode
information structure and force. Particularly, we have shown that a FocP is the host of
inverted predicates in Spanish DPs, and that exclamative force is encoded in D, through
spec-head agreement with a null exclamative operator.
Aboh, E. O. 2004. Topic and focus within D. Linguistics in the Netherlands 21:1-12.
Corver, N. 2000. Degree adverbs as displaced predicates. Rivista di linguistica 12:155191.
Den Dikken, M. 2006. Relators and Linkers. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Giusti, G. 1996. Is there a FocusP and a TopP in the noun phrase structure? University
of Venice WPL 6:105-128.
Haegeman, L. 2004. DP-Periphery and Clausal Periphery: Possessor Doubling in West
Flemish. In Adger, D. et al. Peripheries. Cambridge: CUP, 211-240.
Picallo, C. 1994. Catalan possessive pronouns - The Avoid Pronoun Principle revisited.
NL&LT 12:259-299.
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Information Structure and Exclamative Force in Spanish DP Predicate-Inversion
Constructions
Rigau, G. 1988. Strong Pronouns. LI 19:503-511.
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