Introduction

This work investigates the syntax-information structure interface with particular reference to Spanish and English. There has been a renewed interest in recent linguistic studies within the framework of generative grammar in the role that notions such as topic and focus play in the syntax of various languages (i.e. Culicover and McNally 1998, King 1995, Reinhart 1995, Rizzi 1997, Soh 1998, Zubizarreta 1998, etc.).1 These proposals make use of topic/focus phrases, features, criteria or constraints, depending on the particular theoretical framework. In addition, several works have suggested the introduction of a whole new informational component into the model: Vallduví’s (1990) Informatics, which adds another branch to the T-model, Lambrecht’s (1994) Information Structure, which is proposed in the framework of Construction Grammar, and Erteschik-Shir’s (1997) F-structure, which replaces LF.2