Which que is which?: A squib on reduplicative que complementizers in Iberian Spanish embedded clauses
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Abstract
This paper aims to analyze optional secondary complementizers in Spanish embedded clauses. These optional complementizers, dubbed recomplementation (Gupton, 2010; Villa-García, 2011; 2012a; 2012b; 2012c), are common in informal registers, are restricted to specific types of predicates (Rathmann, 2012) and are not unique to Spanish but also other Iberian languages (Fernández-Rubiera, 2009; Gupton, 2010; Kempchinsky, 2013). Using data from clitic positions and the behavior of topics, foci and other dislocates in Iberian languages, this analysis posits that the left-periphery of embedded clauses in Spanish contain three possible projections (ForceP >TopicP>FinitenessP) each containing a head with their own instantiation of que ‘that’. It will be shown that what is most commonly labeled recomplementation only refers to the optional reduplicated complementizer que in the head of TopicP while que a subordinating complementizer appears in the head of ForceP and, finally, que in the head of FinP has an exhortative or polarity function. The points addressed here are new contributions to the study of recomplementation. Finally, this paper discusses the implications for a more economical left-periphery in both embedded and matrix clauses and calls for more experimental research to be done as such phenomena are below the level of speaker consciousness and prescriptively avoided.
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