Current research project
Topicalized infinitives
In my current habilitation project I am working on topicalized infinitives in Spanish, Portuguese and French (e.g. sp. Trabajar sí que trabaja, pero...; pt. Escrever não escrevo, mas ler um livro, ou um jornal, uns versos, leio; French Pour chanter, elle chante !). I analyze this construction from several perspectives:
- information structure and pragmatic functions in spoken language
- contrasting Spanish, Portuguese and French, in particular with regard to the variant with preceding topicalization markers (French pour + infinitive, Spanish/port. por + infinitive, as well as French quant à / Spanish en cuanto a / pt. quanto a + infinitive)
- diachronic development (in historical corpora of written language)
- emphatic, fronted infinitives in Old Spanish Bible translations from Hebrew (together with Andrés Enrique-Arias, Universitat de les Illes Balears)