On the presupposition of clefts

This article presents a paradox regarding the presuppositional properties of the cleft sentences and proposes a solution for it. On the one hand, Figueiredo and Silva & Menuzzi (2014, 2015) demonstrate that clefts are favored by a presupposition of unicity when used as answers to WH question...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Menuzzi, Sergio de Moura
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2018
País:Brasil
Institución:Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Letras e Lingüística (ANPOLL)
Repositorio:Revista da ANPOLL (Online)
Idioma:portugués
OAI Identifier:oai:ojs.revistadaanpoll.emnuvens.com.br:article/1067
Acceso en línea:https://revistadaanpoll.emnuvens.com.br/revista/article/view/1067
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Clefts
Presupposition
Exhaustivity
Answers to WH questions
Sentenças clivadas
Pressuposição
Estrutura informacional
Interface pragmática/semântica
Descripción
Sumario:This article presents a paradox regarding the presuppositional properties of the cleft sentences and proposes a solution for it. On the one hand, Figueiredo and Silva & Menuzzi (2014, 2015) demonstrate that clefts are favored by a presupposition of unicity when used as answers to WH questions, which suggests that they are characterized by such a presupposition (cf. WEDGWOOD 2005, WEDGWOOD et al. 2006, MENUZZI 2012, BÜRING and KRIZ 2013). On the other hand, Moretto (2016) and Moretto & Menuzzi (2016) show that certain clefts are compatible with only and therefore with the assertion of exhaustivity; in this case, they are compatible only with a weaker presupposition, of existence (cf. HORN 1981, 1996). The explanation I propose for this paradox is this: an assertion of identity provides a complete answer only when there is a contextual presupposition of unicity – which is not inherent property of WH questions (contra POLLARD & YASAVUL, to appear).