Focalización y prosodia en vascuence vizcaíno

Resumen

The notion of focus plays a central role in the Basque language. From a syntactic point ofview, the order of constituents depends on focus assignment. In the phonological realm, the prosodic shape of the sentence is strongly conditioned by focalization, since the focal accent is the most prominent one in the sentence. This article deals primarily with the prosodic aspects of focalization; that is, focal accent, in the Biscayan variety spoken in Lekeitio. It is argued that, in the Basque variety under study, the sentence has a focus position which must be obligatorily filled. The element that occupies this position receives focal accent. On the other hand, there are elements which cannot receive focal accent, whose properties are studied. Besides localization in simple sentences, some complications that arise in negative clauses, subordinate constructions and sentences with synthetic verbs are also described.