| Abstract: | In Spanish focus can be signaled by both prosodic and syntactic means. However, it remains controversial how these two components depend on one another. Based on the analysis of experimental data I argue that in Spanish focus is primarily expressed by intonation. Unlike most Spanish dialects, Argentinean Porteno allows for a tonal distinction between neutral and contrastive focus in IP-final position; in other positions focus is signaled through increased F0 values and/or syllable-internal early peak alignment. In addition, reordering of constituents can apply. Movement as a facultative strategy of focus marking is avoided in sentences with a full DP object, but strongly preferred with a clitic object. The variation encountered in the data is accounted for by combining Minimalist phrase structure building with the insights of the optimality-theoretic model of overlapping constraints. |
