Earticle

This article analyzes the Spanish epistemic constructions headed by a que within the framework that refers to the sentential left periphery as the syntaxdiscourse interface. The epistemic operator, merged at a high position in this sentential edge, determines their syntactic and semantic behavior. Syntactically, the probing operation triggered by its uninterpretable discourse role features attributes the source of the epistemic statement to the speaker; it also selects the hearer to satisfy the constructions’ interpretive conditions. Semantically, on the other hand, the operator takes the proposition in its scope to turn it into the object to which the speaker’s epistemic view is delivered. Furthermore, its being quantifier gives rise to the reading that the speaker is likely to be convinced that his/her knowledge on the state of affairs denoted by the proposition is true. The restriction that these constructions only can be licensed in the matrix clauses corroborates the current postulate that a full-fledged left periphery equipped with the functional projections serving to anchor the epistemic utterance to the speaker and the discourse context is required to derive them satisfactorily.

Este trabajo tiene por objeto ofrecer un análisis de las construcciones epistémicas del español encabezadas por a que dentro del marco teórico que considera la periferia izquierda oracional como interfaz entre la sintaxis y el discurso. El operador epistémico, que se ensambla en una posición alta en este margen oracional, determina el comportamiento sintáctico y semántico de las construcciones. Sintácticamente, la relación de sondeo desencadenada por los rasgos no interpretables de papeles discursivos califica al hablante de fuente de la manifestación epistémica; dicho operador selecciona también al oyente para satisfacer las condiciones interpretativas de estas construcciones. En el lado semántico, por otra parte, el operador toma la proposición en su alcance y la convierte en objeto respecto al que el hablante profiere su conocimiento. Además, su naturaleza como cuantificador proporciona la lectura de que el hablante expresa su casi total convicción sobre la validez de su conocimiento sobre el estado de cosas denotado por la proposición. El que estas construcciones solo se legitimen en las cláusulas matrices corrobora nuestro postulado de que se requiere la periferia izquierda plenamente desplegada con los estratos funcionales que se ocupan de anclar el enunciado epistémico en el hablante y el contexto discursivo para derivarlas satisfactoriamente.

Este trabajo tiene por objeto ofrecer un analisis de las construcciones epistemicas del espanol encabezadas por a que dentro del marco teorico que considera la periferia izquierda oracional como interfaz entre la sintaxis y el discurso. El operador epistemico, que se ensambla en una posicion alta en este margen oracional, determina el comportamiento sintactico y semantico de las construcciones. Sintacticamente, la relacion de sondeo desencadenada por los rasgos no interpretables de papeles discursivos califica al hablante de fuente de la manifestacion epistemica; dicho operador selecciona tambien al oyente para satisfacer las condiciones interpretativas de estas construcciones. En el lado semantico, por otra parte, el operador toma la proposicion en su alcance y la convierte en objeto respecto al que el hablante profiere su conocimiento. Ademas, su naturaleza como cuantificador proporciona la lectura de que el hablante expresa su casi total conviccion sobre la validez de su conocimiento sobre el estado de cosas denotado por la proposicion. El que estas construcciones solo se legitimen en las clausulas matrices corrobora nuestro postulado de que se requiere la periferia izquierda plenamente desplegada con los estratos funcionales que se ocupan de anclar el enunciado epistemico en el hablante y el contexto discursivo para derivarlas satisfactoriamente.

This study investigates the syntax?prosody interface in Spanish topicalization, specifically focusing on the correlation between pauses (prosodic boundaries) and subject?verb inversion in Clitic Left Dislocation (CLLD) constructions. Drawing upon Shim’s (2019) observations on the correlation between CLLD and inversion, as well as Ott’s (2014) ellipsis-based analysis, Veselko’s (2022) peripheral hierarchy, and Gallego’s (2013) feature sharing approach, this paper argues that pauses are not merely phonetic silences but active prosodic cues that determine the syntactic derivation of the topic-comment structure. The analysis demonstrates that a realized pause functions as a prosodic-syntactic boundary, creating a fragmented structure that frequently triggers optional subject?verb inversion to reinforce contrastive focus. Conversely, the absence of a pause indicates structural and prosodic integration, where feature-sharing between the periphery and the core necessitates obligatory inversion. These findings demonstrate that pauses and inversion are structurally interdependent, reflecting a systematic mapping within the syntax?prosody?information structure interface. By redefining pauses as a core structural variable rather than mere ornaments, this study provides a more comprehensive, interdisciplinary account of the formal properties of Spanish CLLD.

This paper is concerned with the syntax and semantics of [muy amigo-possessive] in Spanish. Like predicative nouns and adjectives in the complement position of the copulative verb ser, the string of [muy amigo-possessive] indicates a property of the subject, and at the same time shows a true possessive relationship between the word amigo and the postnominal possessive. To capture these properties structurally, I present an analysis of [muy amigo-possessive] that accounts for the categorial relationship between the word amigo and the postnominal possessive. Specifically, I argue that the word amigo contained in the string of [muy amigo-possessive] undergoes a recategorization from noun to adjective in order to be consistent with categorial selection. From the perspective of Distributed Morphology, I propose that the word amigo, which is introduced as a category-neutral root amig, merges first with a nominalizer to yield the structure of [amigo-possessive], and then merges with a adjectivizer as a process of recategorization to finally produce the structure of [muy [amigo-possessive]]. Under this analysis, categorial selection of the constituents in the string of [muy amigo-possessive] is satisfied in an appropriate way, and the syntactic distribution of each constituent is also explained. Finally, a number of alternatives to the proposed analysis are critically examined.

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of Sorace (2011)’s Interface Hypothesis by testing L1 Korean-L2 Spanish Learners over three different interface properties -the internal interface between syntax and semantics and the external interface between syntax and discourse-pragmatics. A total of 45 university students, divided into three proficiency levels, participated in a grammaticality and/or acceptability judgment test. The test questions dealt with three interface-related phenomena: a) word order variance of two types of intransitive verbs according to focus types, b) pronominal subjects according to topic/focus interpretation, and c) clitic-doubling of the utterance-initial (in)definite objects according to information structure. The SPSS statistics was used for data analysis. The findings of data analysis showed that 1) the more advanced the learners were, the fewer errors were made, and 2) in most cases, the learners seemed to acquire internally interface-related phenomena earlier than externally interface-related phenomena, but not all. The results of this study offer partially positive evidence in favor of the Interface Hypothesis proposed by Sorace and her colleagues.