On the Role of Prosody in German Subpart of Focus Fronting

Surányi, Balázs (2024) On the Role of Prosody in German Subpart of Focus Fronting. In: Linguistische Arbeitsberichte 96. Universität Leipzig, Leipzig, pp. 271-286.

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Abstract

This paper outlines a novel account of an accentual restriction on Subpart of Focus Fronting (SFF) in German, which involves the preposing of a subconstituent of a broad semantic focus to a clause-initial position. As discussed by Fanselow and Lenertová (2011), SFF displacements differ in their properties both from ordinary operator-movements and from so-called ‘formal fronting’ operations. They also exhibit a peculiar prosodic restriction: they are limited to moving the first accented phrase in the clause, a pattern that raises non-trivial issues for the autonomy of syntax. It is proposed here that the restriction follows from the way information structural interpretations are regulated at the syntax–prosody interface. In particular, the broad (or VP) focus interpretation targeted by SFF requires default prominence relations, but movement to the left edge of the intonational phrase across an accented element introduces a deviation from these. The account crucially draws on the hypothesis that both edges of intonational phrases are associated with special, albeit not equal, phonological prominence.

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