Jaume Solà i Pujols - Departament de Filologia Catalana ...

to such a conflict, subject inversion will be alright with them. I think this prediction is fulfilled.
First of all, suppose we add a degree adverb to a predicate such as 'intelligent' ('more/less
intelligent'): the modified predicate will more easily allow a Focus interpretation for its subject,
because it is the case that somebody is exhaustively the person who 'is more intelligent than
others belonging to some discourse-determined set of people'. So subject inversion is quite
natural in this case:
(19) a. És més intel.ligent en Joan
Is more intelligent the Joan
b. És menys perillosa la dinamita
Is less dangerous the dynamite
On the other hand, individual-level predicate copulative constructions with inverted
subject improve if we make the exhaustive reading linguistically more explicit, as in 0:
(20) a. Només és intel.ligent en Joan
Only is intelligent the Joan
'Only Joan is intelligent'
b. De nosaltres, només és de Barcelona en Joan
Of us only is from Barcelona the Joan
'Out of us, only Joan is from Barcelona'
c. En aquest llibre, només és interessant el pròleg
In this book only is interesting the preface
'In this book, only the preface is interesting'
So I will assume that individual level predicates do not exclude subject inversion in
principle. What excludes some of the constructions is the independent fact that the inverted
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