Emphatic Polarity and C in Spanish - Lear

M. LLUÏSA HERNANZ
[42b] is then to counter that assertion by claiming that the relevant person is
indeed coming” (see Etxepare (1997:125)). Setting aside an in-depth study
of the alternation between sí and sí que in Spanish, 29 what is relevant for the
purposes of this discussion is the fact that the latter is also compatible with
not-denying contexts, 30 as illustrated in (43). 31 This seems to suggest that sí
que, on a par with bien que, rather than merely stressing that the event
denoted in the proposition did take place, serves to emphasize the truth value
of the proposition:
(43) a. “Los niños vienen sin libros de instrucciones. Esto sí que es un
milagro!”
The children come with no books of instructions. This yes that is a
miracle!
‘Children come without instruction manuals. That’s really a
miracle!’
b. “¿No decías que no te gustaban las bebidas de soja? Pues chica, he
probado Puleva, y ésta sí que está buenísima!”
Didn’t you say that you didn’t like soy beverages? So, girl, (I) have
tried Puleva, and it yes that is truly delicicious!
‘Didn’t you say that you didn’t like soy beverages? Well, honey, I
tried Puleva and it was truly delicicious!’
c. “Carrefour le ofrece este fin de semana precios de vértigo... Esto sí
que es un aniversario!”
Carrefour CLDAT offers this end of week prices of vertigo... This
yes that is an anniversary!
‘This weekend Carrefour is offering incredibly low prices! Now,
that’s a real anniversary!’
Now let us return to the representation in (41), where two polarity positions
are categorially distinguished: the higher one is situated in the CP field,
while the lower one precedes the IP domain. Given this distribution, we
29
For a comparative analysis of sí que and their equivalent in other Romance languages, see
Martins (2006).
30
I differ from Etxepare (1997) in finding (42b) quite acceptable when uttered as a response
to a previous sentence like (i), from which it cannot effectively be inferred that Juan is not
coming:
(i) ¿Ha venido Juan?
‘Did Juan come?’
31 The examples in (43) are advertisements taken from advertising campaigns.
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