From Rhythm to Grammar

Marina Nespor
University of Ferrara

In this talk, I will investigate the role rhythm may play in the initialization of grammar. It will be proposed that different levels of rhythmic structure may help the infant in acquiring different aspects of the grammar of the language of exposure. More specifically, I will concentrate on the information that may be conveyed by prominence at the level of the intonational phrase. It will be argued that this prominence is a cue not only to some parameters related to word order, but also to those related to the possibility of omitting the subject and the direct object. The distinction between contrastive focus and informational focus is crucial, at least for languages in which phrases may occupy different positions within a sentence.