Cover -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Chapter 1: Definition and Implementation -- 1.1 The Definition of Topic and Focus, and the Boundary between Pragmatics and Syntax -- 1.1.1 Topic and Focus: Relational and Referential Givenness-Newness -- 1.1.2 Focus Types -- 1.1.3 Information Focus and Contrastive Focus -- 1.1.4 Topic Types -- 1.2 Linguistic Realization of Information Structure in Sicilian -- 1.2.1 Syntactic Extraposition -- 1.2.2 Focus Fronting -- 1.3 The Cartographic Project -- 1.3.1 The Cartographic Approach and the Minimalist Program -- 1.3.2 The Syntax of Peripheral Positions: Criteria as Triggers for Movement and Discourse-Related Features -- 1.4 Cartographic Peripheries vis-à-vis Minimalist Edge Positions -- Chapter 2: Word Order in Sicilian -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 Syntactic Extraposition -- 2.2.1 CLRD and Marginalization -- 2.2.2 CLLD and Simple Preposing -- 2.2.3 The Position of the Subject -- 2.3 Focus Fronting -- 2.3.1 Verb in Final Position -- 2.3.2 FF as Quantificational Movement -- 2.4 The Syntax and Pragmatics of FF -- 2.4.1 The Relevance of the Fronted Focus -- 2.4.2 Syntactic Categories -- 2.4.3 Sentence Types -- 2.4.4 Focus Fronting in Embedded Clauses -- 2.5 The Exhaustive and Contrastive Interpretations of FF -- 2.5.1 FF and Exhaustivity -- 2.5.2 FF and Contrast -- 2.6 Summary -- Chapter 3: Focus Fronting in Romance: A Comparison -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 Contrastive Focus and the Notion of Contrast -- 3.2.1 Contrast as an Independent Information Structure Notion -- 3.2.2 Hierarchy of Contrast -- 3.2.3 Metalinguistic Correction -- 3.3 Focus Positions and Parametric Variation in Romance -- 3.3.1 Focus Fronting and Contrast -- 3.3.2 Non-Contrastive FF in Sicilian and in Sardinian -- 3.3.3 Mirroring Sicilian and Sardinian: The Case of Turinese -- 3.4 Adjacency to the Verb.

3.4.1 CFocP and IFocP: Two Distinct Projections in the Left Periphery -- 3.4.2 Cross-Linguistic Correlation between Adjacency and Interpretation of the Focus -- 3.5 Other Types of FF -- 3.5.1 QP-Fronting -- 3.5.2 Unexpected New Information: Mirative Fronting -- 3.5.3 Neapolitan and Triestino -- 3.6 Focus Fronting in Medieval Romance -- 3.6.1 Fronting in Old Italian -- 3.6.2 Medieval Sicilian and Sardinian -- 3.7 Summary -- Chapter 4: Parallels between Wh and Focus -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 Wh and Focus: Grounds for the Proposed Parallelism -- 4.2.1 Interpretive and Distributional Analogies -- 4.2.2 Movement and Operator-Properties -- 4.3 Wh and Focus: Syntactic Problems -- 4.3.1 The Adjacency Requirement -- 4.3.2 Extraction across Weak Islands -- 4.3.3 Structural Analysis -- 4.4 Further Evidence for the IFoc vs. CFoc Distinction -- 4.4.1 Interpretive Differences -- 4.4.2 Prosodic Differences -- 4.4.3 Syntactic Differences -- 4.5 D-linked and Non-D-linked Wh-Phrases -- 4.5.1 D-linked Wh-Phrases Are Not Topics -- 4.5.2 Correspondence between Focus Categories and Wh-Types -- 4.6 Typology and Distribution of Focus -- 4.6.1 Focus and Wh in situ -- 4.6.2 A Typology of Focus-Movement -- 4.7 Left Peripheries -- 4.7.1 Discourse-Related Features and Focus Functional Projections -- 4.7.2 Feature Checking and Criterial Freezing -- 4.8 Summary -- Chapter 5: Information Structure in Yes/No-Questions -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.2 Marking Yes/No-Questions in Sicilian -- 5.2.1 The Interrogative Particle chi -- 5.2.2 Distribution within the Left Periphery of the Sentence -- 5.2.3 Interpretation Associated with chi -- 5.3 Word Order in Yes/No-Questions -- 5.3.1 The Extension of the Focus -- 5.3.2 Focus Fronting -- 5.3.3 Syntactic Extraposition -- 5.4 Interrogative Particles and Word Order in Romance -- 5.4.1 Catalan que -- 5.4.2 Central and Southern Italian che.

5.4.3 Sardinian a -- 5.5 Summary -- Chapter 6: Conclusions -- References -- Language Index -- A -- B -- C -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- Subject Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- X -- Y -- Name Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Z.