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In:Information-Structural Perspectives on Discourse Particles
Edited by Pierre-Yves Modicom and Olivier Duplâtre
[Studies in Language Companion Series 213] 2020
► pp. 47–70

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Chapter 2
Information-structural properties of is that clauses

 | University of Vienna
Published online: 4 March 2020
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https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.213.02rem
Abstract
This article is concerned with what are known as inferential constructions, i.e. clauses where the expressions it’s (just) that or it’s not that have gained the function of discourse markers. Similar expressions also exist in Romance. The corresponding construction in Spanish is introduced by es que and the content of the following clause is always focal, in the sense that it contains information that relates to a variable inferable from the context (exhaustive information focus). The particular information-structural properties presented by both the es que-construction and its negative and interrogative counterparts can only be explained by an analysis of their underlying development. In this respect, these constructions constitute a good illustration of the interplay of discourse and grammaticalization, especially the interface between syntax and pragmatics, where information-structural properties are located.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The semantic and pragmatic properties of is that constructions
  • 3.Predecessors of is that constructions
  • 4.Information-structural partitions
    • 4.1Inverse copula construction
    • 4.2Clefts and pseudo-clefts
    • 4.3Information-structural parallelism
    • 4.4Analysis
  • 5.Presuppositional meaning and relevance
    • 5.1Negation: No es que
    • 5.2Interrogative: ¿es que…?
    • 5.3Further observations on the morpho-syntactic properties of es que
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
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