1 Ana Maria Martins (University of Lisbon – FLUL/CLUL) Freie ...

[B] Isso lhe digo eu todos os dias mas não lhe entra
that him-DAT tell-1SG I all the days but not him enters
na cabeça.
in-the head
‘That’s what I tell him every day, but it does not get into his head.’
(9) [A] Estás cansada. Vai passar uns dias na praia.
are-2SG tired. go-2SG spend some days in-the beach
‘You’re tired! Go spend some days at the beach.’
[B] Isso queria eu.
that wanted I
‘That’s what I wanted.’
(10) [A] Ele tem muito jeito pró negócio.
he has much ability for-the business
‘He has a natural gift for business.’
[B] Com esse jeito pró negócio me vendeu ele uma televisão
with that ability for-the business me sold he a television
avariada.
broken
‘It’s with that gift for business that he sold me a broken TV.’
The core property of a contrastive focus is the addition of the speakers’ disagreeing
attitude regarding what he knows or supposes to be the expectations/convictions of the hearer.
This attitude is added to the basic denotation of the sentence. As such, this type of focus
signals the contrast between the information given by the speaker and the information that,
according to the speaker’s beliefs, is previously assumed by the hearer. (Cf. Zimmermann
2007; Onea and Zimmermann 2011).
(11) Zimmermann’s (2007) definition of contrastive focus
[Contrastive focus marking indicates] a contrast between the information conveyed by
the speaker in asserting α and the assumed expectation state of the hearer: the speaker
marks the content of α as – in her view – unlikely to be expected by the hearer, thus
preparing the scene for a swifter update of the common ground.
2. CFF vs. Topicalization
Tests to be used (cf. Hernanz and Brucart 1987, Zubizarreta 1999, Ambar 1992, Rouveret
1992, Duarte 1997, and Cardoso 2010):
A – Cleft-like interpretation;
B – Clitic placement;
C – Sensitivity to referential properties of fronted constituent;
D – Subject-verb inversion;
E – PP-preposing (when the PP is the complement of certain existential and light);
F – Relative clause extraposition.
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