Information Structure Projects in Syntax: Evidence from Focus and Modality in Sinhala

M.G. Lalith Ananda

University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Colombo, Sri Lanka


Abstract

The major claim of this paper is that information structure related particles of Sinhala are distinct functional heads and they project in syntax. This is in line with the cartographic approach to syntax which claims that discourse related features are visible for computation (Rizzi 1997, 2004), a claim also supported by Miyagawa, (2010), and Aboh (2010), among others. The present paper seeks to validate the above claim with evidence from Sinhala, motivating the argument that discourse related features lexicalized in Sinhala drive the derivation, and these features are comparable to formal features in establishing an Agree relation.

Keywords:

information structure, functional heads, Sinhala, syntax

Aboh, Enoch O., Hartmann, K., Zimmermann, M. (eds.), 2007. Focus Strategies in African Languages. Berlin. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Aboh, Enoch, O. 2010. Information Structuring Begins with the Numeration. Iberia vol 2.1, 12-42.

Ananda, L. 2011. The Focus Construction in Sinhala. Germany: Lap Lambert Publishing.

Ananda, L. 2012. Clausal Complementation in Sinhala. Unpublished PhD thesis. Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Chafe, W.L. 1976. “Givenness, Contrastiveness, Definiteness, Subjects, Topics and Point of View”. In: CN. Li (ed.), Subject and Topic, 25-55. Associated Press, New York.

Chomsky, N. 1995. The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Chomsky, N. 1981. Lectures on government and binding. Dordrecht: Foris.

Chomsky, N. 1986. Barriers. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

Cinque, G. 1999. Adverbs and Functional Heads: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cinque, G. & Rizzi, L. 2008. The cartography of syntactic structures. CISCL Working Papers.

Hagstrom, P. A. 1993. Decomposing questions. Doctoral dissertation. MIT.

Henadeerage, D.K. 2002. Topics in Sinhala syntax. Doctoral dissertation. Australian National University.

Halliday, M. A. K. 1967. Notes on Transitivity and Theme in English. Journal of Linguistics 3, 199-244.

Kariyakarawana, S. M. 1998. The Syntax of Focus and WH Questions in Sinhala. Colombo: Karunaratne and Sons LTD.

Kidwai, A. 1999. “Word order and focus positions in Universal Grammar”. In: G. Rebuschi & L. Tuller (eds.), The grammar of focus. 213-244. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Lambrecht, K. 1995. Information structure and sentence form. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Miyagawa, S. 2010. Why Agree? Why Move? Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Rizzi, L. 1997. The fine structure of the left periphery. In: L. Haegeman (ed.), Elements of Grammar. 281-338. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Rizzi, L. 1998. On the Position of Int(errogative) in the Left Periphery of the Clause. Manuscript. University of Siena.

Vallduví, E. 1992. The Informational Component. Garland: New York.

Zagona, K. 2007. “On the syntactic features of epistemic and root modals”. In: Luis Eguren & Olga Fernandez (eds.), Co-reference, Modality and Focus. 221-236. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Zimmermann, M., Fery, C. 2010. Information Structure. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Download

Published
2018-06-30


Ananda, M. L. (2018) “Information Structure Projects in Syntax: Evidence from Focus and Modality in Sinhala”, Crossroads. A Journal of English Studies, (21), pp. 11–25. doi: 10.15290/cr.2018.21.2.02.

M.G. Lalith Ananda 
University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Colombo, Sri Lanka