Pérez-Cabello de Alba: An Account of Selectional Restrictions within a Conceptual Framework: Its Relevance for Role and Reference Grammar

This paper deals with a focusing strategy, focus fronting, whereby the focused information unit precedes the finite nucleus. Our principal concern is with the micro-parametric variation between Nuorese Sardinian, Sicilian, and Italian, three Romance languages which display focus fronting to different extents and in different modalities. We claim that whereas focus fronting in Sardinian occurs in the pre-core slot, thus paralleling fronting in German (Van Valin/Diedrichsen 2006, Diedrichsen 2008), in Sicilian focus fronting distinguishes between contrastive and completive focus. The locus of contrastive focus fronting is the pre-core slot, whilst completive focus fronting places the focused information unit in the first position in the core (Bentley 2008). The contrast between Sardinian and Sicilian illustrates two V2 strategies; one is defined by the placement of the finite nucleus in the core-initial position ([pre-core Slot X] [core [nucleus]...]), whilst the other is defined by the placement of the finite nucleus in the second position of the core ([core X [nucleus]...]). In Italian, fronting is highly constrained, affecting only whand contrastive units, and leaving scope for SVO order in almost all its instances. The proposed analysis is compatible with the current understanding of fronting in Medieval Romance (Lombardi 2007; Vanelli 1986).