Focus structure and assertion in relative clauses

Abstract

Abstract This chapter offers new data supporting the idea that displaying a focus/background articulation is an inherent property of not necessarily syntactic structures per se, but rather of asserted content (Roberts 1996/2012; Simons et al. 2010, 2016). The behavior of restrictive relative clauses and appositive relative clauses is examined with respect to focus structure. The emerging generalization is that only appositive relative clauses can have focus/background articulation because they assert new information, whereas restrictive relative clauses lack information structure as a natural consequence of conveying presupposed content. Syntactic configurations, then, do not establish information structure in a blind, automatic way; rather they introduce conditions on possible informational articulations.