How is sentence focus expressed in Italian syntax

Sentence focus in Italian syntax is mainly expressed through word order changes such as focus fronting, where the focused constituent is moved to the left periphery of the sentence, often accompanied by prosodic prominence. This fronting typically marks contrastive or narrow focus, emphasizing the new or important information in the sentence. Non-contrastive focus usually appears post-verbally. Additionally, Italian employs focusing adverbs and prosodic cues to signal focus. Italian also allows for scrambling or reordering constituents to highlight focus elements, influenced by pragmatic and informational factors. These mechanisms interplay with syntax and prosody to mark sentence focus in Italian effectively. ^{1, 4, 11, 12}

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