The evolution of degree wh-exclamatives in catalan

Authors

  • Xavier Villalba Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7203/caplletra.60.8454

Keywords:

exclamatives, subject-verb inversion, conjunction, Force, focus

Abstract

Abstract: This article discusses the evolution of degree wh-exclamatives from Old Catalan to Modern and Contemporary Catalan. Two major changes can be identified which transformed these constructions from a general pattern common to most Romance languages without obligatory inversion or a complementizer in the 16th century, to a less common one with obligatory inversion already in the 18th century and a complementizer in the 19th century. To account for this process, we argue that obligatory inversion is a general phenomenon related to the checking of [wh]/[focus] features, affecting also interrogatives and focus preposing, whereas the emergence of the complementizer is a result of the lexicalization of the exclamative Force head, and hence a specific and restricted phenomenon.

Key words: exclamatives, subject-verb inversion, conjunction, Force, focus.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Downloads

Published

2016-07-20

How to Cite

Villalba, X. (2016). The evolution of degree wh-exclamatives in catalan. Caplletra. Revista Internacional De Filologia, (60), 211–226. https://doi.org/10.7203/caplletra.60.8454
Metrics
Views/Downloads
  • Abstract
    616
  • PDF (Català)
    395

Issue

Caplletra 61 (Tardor 2016)

Section

ARTICLES MONOGRÀFIC

License

Authors submitting work to Caplletra for publication must be the legitimate holder of the usage rights. Legitimacy for the purposes of publishing the work must also include images, tables, diagrams and any other materials that may complement the text, whether they are the author of such material or not.

Copyright: on publishing their work in the journal, the author grants Caplletra. Revista Internacional de Filologia usage rights (reproduction, distribution and public communication) for both the paper printed version and for the electronic version.

All work published in Caplletra is covered by the Creative Commons license type Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

 

 

RESPONSABILITY

Caplletra. Revista Internacional de Filologia does not necessarily identify with the points of view expressed in the papers it publishes.

Caplletra. Revista Internacional de Filologia accepts no responsibility whatsoever for any eventual infringement of intellectual property rights on the part of authors.

Metrics

Similar Articles

<< < 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.