The Syntax of Givenness Ivona Kucerová

translated by using a definite description. At the same time keeping the original requirement
on a salient antecedent ensures that not every definite description will be treated as
given. Consider the example in (134).
(134) Král včera hrál šachy s královnou.
king yesterday played chess with queen.
‘The king and the queen played chess yesterday.’
The example in (134) is a felicitous answer to the question ‘What happened?’ in a context
where there is only one king and one queen in a palace. Even though ‘the queen’ is interpreted
as definite, there is no G-movement. For ‘the queen’ to be able to G-move, there
would have to be a salient antecedent like in the example in (135).
(135) a. The queen was bored all day but then. . .
b. s královnou hrál král šachy.
with queen played king chess
‘. . . the king played chess with the queen.’
To summarize this section, I have provided an argument that, in Czech, for an element to be
given (at least for purposes of G-movement) it is not enough to have a salient antecedent.
A stronger semantic condition is required. Specifically, I have argued that for an element
to be interpreted as given the element must give rise to an existential presupposition. Thus,
the semantic condition on being given in Czech is stronger than the condition on being
deaccented in English.
4.7 A note on phonology and its relation to givenness
Superficially, Czech behaves like languages that require a new element to occupy the most
embedded part of the tree in order to be assigned nuclear stress (Cinque, 1993; Zubizarreta,
1998; Arregui-Urbina, 2002; Szendrői, 2003). One may wonder whether we are losing
something if we do not refer to phonology at all in the treatment of givenness in Czech.
In this section, I will briefly address this question. I will first review the basics of Czech
sentential prosody. Then, I will show a couple of cases where elements move in order to
satisfy their prosodic requirement. I will argue that this kind of movement is different from
G-movement. Finally, I will briefly address the question of abstract phonology as a trigger
of syntactic movement.
Main sentential prominence in Czech is realized on the first syllable of the last prosodic
word (cf. Gebauer 1900; Skaličková 1956; Daneš 1957; Romportl 1973; Palková 1994,
among others). 23 Czech, in contrast to English, does not realize sentential prominence with
a high tone. Instead, prominence is realized by increased intensity and longer duration. 24
23 For further discussion on the Czech sentential prosody and its relation to information structure see Mathesius
1931, 1937; Trávníček 1937, 1939; Petřík 1938; Petr et al. 1986, among others.
24 It is, however, possible that what is perceived as prosodic prominence is a high tone on the stressed
syllable of the last prosodic word followed by a low tone (Edward Flemming, p.c.).
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