Hello and welcome! This website is for all those interested in the Romance languages, and especially in how different varieties of this family realise nominal focalisations. The website includes, among others, a collection of references on the topic of clefts, and a page that the reader can use to register their interest in being involved in a series of surveys. It will also soon host a multimodal atlas, called Focus!.
The whole enterprise behind this website is part of two projects funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, #P2GEPI_184384 (‘The fine structure of Romance interrogative it-clefts’) and #P500PH_202764 (‘Different types of focus in diachrony: Formal and typological variations’), which I gratefully acknowledge. Head to the projects page to know more about the projects and their goals.
Part of the work presented here is done in collaboration with Prof. Adam Ledgeway (University of Cambridge). However, Ledgeway is not responsible for the contents that I publish here.
Who am I?
My name is Caterina Bonan, and I am a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge, UK, Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages. I hold a PhD in general linguistics awarded at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, in 2019. I am a specialist in formal syntax and comparative Romance linguistics.
Main goals of this enterprise
A redefinition of the role played by the low periphery of the clause in the Romance languages.
A refinement of the existing theories on the structure of Romance it-clefts.
The establishment of a freely-accessible multimodal atlas of focalisations in the Romance languages.
Clefts (and other focalisations) in the Romance languages 