A Syntactic-Prosodic Analysis of Focalizing Ser
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.lyl.n81a03Keywords:
focus, prosody, clefts, focalizing ser, Colombian SpanishAbstract
This study is the first analysis on how focalizing ser is marked prosodically, and how this compares to cleft and pseudo-cleft focus structures. Data was collected from Barranquilla, Bogotá, Cali, and Medellín. Our results show that ser in FS structures can have a pre-nuclear pitch accent, unlike ser in cleft and pseudo-cleft structures. Although FS is considered a discourse marker (Curnow & Travis, 2004; Pato 2010), it still behaves like a verb in terms of syntax and prosody.
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