The Syntax of Multiple-que Sentences in Spanish

Along the left periphery

Julio Villa-García | Villanova University

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027258014 | EUR 99.00 | USD 149.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027269102 | EUR 99.00 | USD 149.00

Complementizers offer a window into the architecture of the left-periphery and further our understanding of the demarcation of the boundaries between the C(omplementizer) and T(ense) domains. Using the articulated left-periphery as a laboratory and Spanish constructions featuring more than one complementizer as a point of departure, the author delivers new insights into the syntactic positions and behavior of Spanish complementizer que along the left edge. These observations have far-reaching consequences to such fundamental linguistic concepts as the derivation of left dislocations, ellipsis, and locality of movement. Of great interest to syntax graduate students and researchers in general, this volume provides a stepping stone to cracking the code on several current syntactic questions, including the widely-contested position of preverbal subjects in null-subject languages like Spanish. In addition, it offers the linguist a bountiful toolbox for the cross-linguistic investigation of a number of left-peripheral and clausal phenomena.

[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 2] 2015. xv, 274 pp.

Publishing status: Available
Published online on 14 March 2015

https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.2

Table of Contents

Preface | pp. xi–xiii

List of abbreviations | pp. xv–15

Chapter 1. Introduction | pp. 1–16

Chapter 2. Toward a syntactic analysis of Spanish recomplementation | pp. 17–82

Chapter 3. Two distinct complementizers in disguise: Implications for the syntax of preverbal subjects | pp. 83–142

Chapter 4. On the impossibility of movement across non-primary complementizers in Spanish | pp. 143–182

Chapter 5. Analyzing the locality effect with non-primary que complementizers in Spanish | pp. 183–250

References | pp. 251–272

Index | pp. 273–274

“This is an excellent book on the syntax of Spanish que. The author shows an impressive mastery of the literature and pays a great deal of attention to even the smallest detail. The quality of argumentation provided in the book is outstanding and highly detailed, and the empirical coverage of the monograph is laudable. The book is very well-written and easy to read.”

Lara Reglero, Florida State University

“This book provides a detailed and tightly argued analysis of a particular phenomenon in Spanish syntax — subordinate clauses with more than one instance of the complementizer que — and in so doing engages with various long-standing issues in Spanish generative studies, such as clitic left-dislocations, the nature of the left periphery, preverbal subjects, locality, and the mechanisms underlying ellipsis. It should be obligatory reading for linguists working on these issues in Spanish in particular and Romance languages more generally.”

Paula Kempchinsky, The University of Iowa

“This monograph offers a detailed, careful, and up-to-date study of the syntax of complementizers in Spanish. Adopting the cartographic framework, Villa-García accounts for the distribution of multiple complementizers and its consequences for other phenomena (locality, ellipsis, topicalization, etc.). Certainly a must-read for everyone interested in the left periphery of Spanish and Romance more generally.”

Ángel J. Gallego, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

“This book provides a current account of the syntax of double-complementizer constructions in Spanish, an area of Spanish syntax not previously explored. In addition, the vast empirical evidence included in the analysis turns this book into an impressive introduction to (mostly) all phenomena related to the Spanish left periphery. This well-written book will be useful not only to researchers working on the syntax of Spanish complementizers or the Romance left periphery, but also to any person interested in the overall properties of the Spanish CP field, word order, and the architecture of the Spanish clause.”

Emma Ticio, Syracuse University

Cited by (19)

Cited by 19 other publications

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2023. Middle-Passive Constructions, Dative Possessors, and Word Order in Spanish. Languages 9:1 ► pp. 15 ff.

Villa-García, Julio

2023. Cº realizations along the left edge across English and Spanish. Languages 8:4 ► pp. 268 ff.

Villa-García, Julio

2023. Hanging Topic Left Dislocations as extrasentential constituents: toward a paratactic account. Evidence from English and Spanish. The Linguistic Review 40:2 ► pp. 265 ff.

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2022. Semantic anchoring. In Sound, Syntax and Contact in the Languages of Asturias [Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 36], ► pp. 45 ff.

Pañeda, Claudia & Dave Kush

2022. Spanish embedded question island effects revisited: an experimental study. Linguistics 60:2 ► pp. 463 ff.

Villa-García, Julio & Hugo Sánchez-Llana

2022. Asturian and Asturian Spanish at the syntax-phonology interface. In Sound, Syntax and Contact in the Languages of Asturias [Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 36], ► pp. 15 ff.

Gupton, Timothy & Elizabeth Gielau

2021. Introduction. In East and West of The Pentacrest [Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 33], ► pp. 1 ff.

Jiménez Fernández, Ángel Luis

2021. Relativas y Anteposición Negativa en inglés y español. Verba: Anuario Galego de Filoloxía 48

López, Laura González & Andreas Trotzke

2021. ¡Mira! The grammar-attention interface in the Spanish left periphery. The Linguistic Review 38:1 ► pp. 5 ff.

Gras, Pedro & María Sol Sansiñena

2020. Un caso de variación pragmático-discursiva:queinicial en tres variedades dialectales del español. Romanistisches Jahrbuch 71:1 ► pp. 271 ff.

Suárez-Büdenbender, Eva-María

2020. Alejandro Cuza (ed.). Cuban Spanish Dialectology: Variation, Contact, and Change. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 13:1 ► pp. 247 ff.

Villa-García, Julio & Raquel González Rodríguez

2020. On the Contrasts Between sí ‘yes’ and sí que ‘yes that’ in Spanish and the Structure of the Complementizer Phrase Domain. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 13:2 ► pp. 451 ff.

Colasanti, Valentina & Giuseppina Silvestri

2019. Matrix complementizers in Italo-Romance. In Italian Dialectology at the Interfaces [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 251], ► pp. 155 ff.

Frank, Joshua

2016. On the grammaticality of recomplementation in Spanish. In Inquiries in Hispanic Linguistics [Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 12], ► pp. 39 ff.

Frank, Joshua

2020. The Effect of Silence and Distance: Evidence from Recomplementation in US Heritage Spanish. Languages 5:4 ► pp. 66 ff.

Villa-García, Julio & Imanol Suárez-Palma

2016. Early null and overt subjects in the Spanish of simultaneous English-Spanish bilinguals and Crosslinguistic Influence. Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics 29:2 ► pp. 350 ff.

[no author supplied]

2022. Arabic Dislocation [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 271],

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 6 january 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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