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In:The Lexicon–Syntax Interface: Perspectives from South Asian languages
Edited by Pritha Chandra and Richa Srishti
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 209] 2014
► pp. 53–70

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Adjective-fronting as evidence for Focus and Topic within the Bangla nominal domain

 | University of Southern California
Published online: 25 March 2014
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https://doi.org/10.1075/la.209.03sye
The goal of this paper is twofold. First it talks about the syntax of adjectives in Bangla, and argues in favor of the idea that there is a fixed hierarchy of functional projections where Adjective phrases are manifest as specifiers. It takes the stance that the adjectives are part of the lexicon; they are taken from the lexicon during a computation, and mapped into the syntax, forming an AdjectivePhrase (AdjP). Secondly, the paper argues for Focus and Topic phrases within the nominal domain, thus extending Rizzi’s original proposal of a split CP to DPs (cf. Rizzi 1997). Specifically the paper uses evidence from adjective fronting to claim that there is a fixed FocP immediately above the DP in Bangla, and at least one TopP above the FocP. The constituent bearing such a topic/focus feature needs to move up in a local checking configuration with the relevant functional head that has the matching feature, thus explaining the attested adjective-fronting.
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