Topic, focus, and syntactic representations.pdfVIP

Topic fo cus and syntactic representations Caroline Heyco ck Anthony Kro ch University of Edinburgh University of Pennsylvania WCCFL XXI UCSC thth March Intro duction Sp ecicational copular sentences like lo ok very simple but they are b oth extremely inter esting and very hard to analyse The p erson I most wanted to meet was Tom Lehrer An understanding of the mapping b etween syntax and information structure is crucial to an analysis Setting out the problem sp ecicational sentences Canonical copular constructions a Joan is a nice woman b I consider Joan a nice woman SC a Joan is the b est singer in the country b I consider Joan the b est singer in the country SC Sp ecicational copular consructions a The b est singer in the country is Joan b Her goal is total world domination a I consider the b est singer in the country Joan b I consider her goal total world domination which include sp ecicational pseudo clefts a What I want is that b o ok over thereyou b What Joan is is a geniusextraordinarily intelligent c What I don t have is any bread which must b e distinguished from sup ercially similar examples like a What I want is unobtainable b What Joani is is imp ortant to her i c What I dont know would ll many b o oks a Fame is unobtainable b Joani s status is imp ortant to her i c My faux pas would ll many b o oks Rough paraphrases of a I want that b o ok over thereyou b Joan is a geniusextraordinarily intelligent c I dont have any bread Connectivity eects unexp ected b ehaviour with