Oraciones de complemento en español. Tipos, estructura y función

Abstract

This paper, which falls within the field of Spanish noun subordination, intends to propose a unified account of clause structures that crosslinguistically have been described as complement of a verb, or complement clause. First, I deal with the four types of complement clauses that code an argument of the main verbal predicate in Spanish, namely, subject, direct object, nominal predicate and prepositional government. In order to explain the subordinate structural alternation in relation to the verbal finite or infinitive inflexion, in all four cases, I analyze the participants’ coreference between the complement clause and the main one, trying to demonstrate that the mentioned coreference is not only established between the subject of the complement clause and the subject of its main clause. Second, taking into consideration that in Spanish the complement clause usually follows its main clause, I analyze the information structure of its semantic content to come to the conclusion that its position following the main clause is due to its high communicative value, assuming that Spanish syntax organizes its constituents according to the old/known information-new information order.