Complementizers on edge: On the boundaries between syntax and pragmatics in Ibero-Romance

Reviews

• Review in Romanische Forschungen, Band 137 (2025) by Kim A. Groothuis published January 9, 2026
  [...] [T]his is a well-structured and well-written monograph that is pleasant to read and that will be of great interest for scholars working on Romance, syntax, or pragmatics. Although it focuses on Ibero-Romance, I believe it makes important contributions to Romance linguistics more widely, as well as theoretical syntax, and pragmatics, in various ways. On an empirical level, it presents a comprehensive overview of matrix complementizer constructions in Ibero-Romance, richly illustrated with data from three languages; on a more theoretical level, the monograph is thought-provoking and innovative for both the reconceptualization of subordination as well as the dominant role attributed to pragmatics. Finally, methodologically, the corpus-driven experiments for data exploration presented in chapter four provide a promising new way of looking at the syntax pragmatics interface that will undoubtedly inspire researchers in Romance linguistics and well beyond. [...]