Summary

The aim of this research project is to investigate the nature of the interface between discourse pragmatics and syntax. In order words, we propose to study how focus and topic interact with clause structure and how syntactic rules driving clause structure and discourse/pragmatic properties interact. Using descriptive tools from the generative framework, the innovative contribution of this research is to analyse syntactic properties in relation to their discourse function in order to shed more light on the discourse-syntax interface and, therefore, provide a better characterisation of how information structure may affect syntax.
Keywords: TOPIC, FOCUS, CLAUSE STRUCTURE, DISCOURSE