The Syntax of Multiple-que Sentences in Spanish: Along the left periphery(2 Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics)

Complementizers offer a window into the architecture of the left-periphery and further our understanding of the demarcation of the boundaries between the C(omplementizer) and T(ense) domains. Using the articulated left-periphery as a laboratory and Spanish constructions featuring more than one complementizer as a point of departure, the author delivers new insights into the syntactic positions and behavior of Spanish complementizer que along the left edge. These observations have far-reaching consequences to such fundamental linguistic concepts as the derivation of left dislocations, ellipsis, and locality of movement. Of great interest to syntax graduate students and researchers in general, this volume provides a stepping stone to cracking the code on several current syntactic questions, including the widely-contested position of preverbal subjects in null-subject languages like Spanish. In addition, it offers the linguist a bountiful toolbox for the cross-linguistic investigation of a number of left-peripheral and clausal phenomena.

Table of Contents:
1. Preface; 2. List of abbreviations; 3. Chapter 1. Introduction; 4. Chapter 2. Toward a syntactic analysis of Spanish recomplementation; 5. Chapter 3. Two distinct complementizers in disguise: Implications for the syntax of preverbal subjects; 6. Chapter 4. On the impossibility of movement across non-primary complementizers in Spanish; 7. Chapter 5. Analyzing the locality effect with non-primary que complementizers in Spanish; 8. References; 9. Index

Review :
This book provides a detailed and tightly argued analysis of a particular phenomenon in Spanish syntax — subordinate clauses with more than one instance of the complementizer que — and in so doing engages with various long-standing issues in Spanish generative studies, such as clitic left-dislocations, the nature of the left periphery, preverbal subjects, locality, and the mechanisms underlying ellipsis. It should be obligatory reading for linguists working on these issues in Spanish in particular and Romance languages more generally. This is an excellent book on the syntax of Spanish que. The author shows an impressive mastery of the literature and pays a great deal of attention to even the smallest detail. The quality of argumentation provided in the book is outstanding and highly detailed, and the empirical coverage of the monograph is laudable. The book is very well-written and easy to read. This book provides a current account of the syntax of double-complementizer constructions in Spanish, an area of Spanish syntax not previously explored. In addition, the vast empirical evidence included in the analysis turns this book into an impressive introduction to (mostly) all phenomena related to the Spanish left periphery. This well-written book will be useful not only to researchers working on the syntax of Spanish complementizers or the Romance left periphery, but also to any person interested in the overall properties of the Spanish CP field, word order, and the architecture of the Spanish clause. This monograph offers a detailed, careful, and up-to-date study of the syntax of complementizers in Spanish. Adopting the cartographic framework, Villa-García accounts for the distribution of multiple complementizers and its consequences for other phenomena (locality, ellipsis, topicalization, etc.). Certainly a must-read for everyone interested in the left periphery of Spanish and Romance more generally.