Fronting, background, focus: A comparative study of Sardinian and Icelandic

Abstract There is a superficial similarity between fronting phenomena, attested in Sardinian and Icelandic. Nevertheless, the two languages are, radically different as to the pragmatic interpretation associated with, fronting. It is argued that the differences and similarities alike can, follow from an account that takes pragmatic features, that is, features, encoding elements of information structure, to be syntactically projected, and checked. In particular, Sardinian fronting creates narrow focus on, the fronted element, whereas the remaining part of the clause is backgrounded. In Icelandic, the clause is associated with maximal focus out, of which the fronted element has been back-grounded. From this basic, difference it follows that the languages are each otherʹs mirror reflex, with respect to some fundamental patterns, including the definiteness, effect and locality restrictions encountered in Icelandic but not in, Sardinian. Furthermore, it follows that the languages are alike in that, they disallow fronting of purely functional elements such as auxiliaries. Lastly, the languages are superficially similar in the sense that, fronting obeys a subject gap condition, which however comes from a, distinct source in each language. The final section of the paper is, concerned with a general discussion on language variation.