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4 Information structure

4.1 Word order

As a “discourse configurational language” (Kiss 1995), Romanian displays a relatively high freedom
of constituent placement within the sentence, which serves discourse purposes: to mark the topic-
comment informational structure (which leads to discourse coherence) and to produce emphatic effects
(focalization).

4.1.1 In Romanian, the dominant unmarked word order of the body of the sentence is SVO (Dryer
2005: 332, Ledgeway 2011: 408, III.1.9.3); it occurs in declarative main clauses in which the
grammatical subject corresponds to the topic (XIII.1.1).

C SVO word order is common to Romance languages; relative word order freedom is a
feature of “null subject” languages. The SVO order of Romanian has been challenged by some scholars
(Dobrovie Sorin 1994, Cornilescu 2000, Alboiu 2002, Manoliu 2011: 508), but their arguments more
probably illustrate word order flexibility; the SVO pattern remains dominant. Balkan languages are also
discourse configurational (Krapova 2004).

The left periphery is reserved for connectors, focalizers, modalizers and certain (e.g. situational)
adjuncts; it is also the specific position for topicalization (marking topic continuity and contrastive
topic) and for contrastive focus.

4.1.2 The subject is frequently postverbal when it is a rhematic element, together with the verb – in
“what happened?” contexts, such as (119a), including existential structures, such as (119b) –, and in
configurations in which another constituent is topicalized (119c):

(119) a. Ce se întâmplă? – Trece o maşină

what CL.REFL.ACC happens passes a car.NOM
‘What is going on?’ ‘A car is passing’
b. Sunt multe greşeli în text
are.3PL many mistakes.NOM in text
‘There are many mistakes in the text’
c. Cartea mi-a dat-o Ion
book.DEF.ACC CL.DAT.1SG=has given=CL.ACC.3SG Ion.NOM
‘Ion gave me the book’

The subject realized as an indefinite NP or the subject which is assigned a different role than Agent has
certain affinities with the rheme position, i.e. it is usually postverbal (III.1.9.1.2); this word order is
also displayed by subjects realized as full embedded clauses or as infinitival / supine clauses. Bare
nominal subjects are usually rhematic and postverbal.

4.1.3 In wh-interrogatives, the wh-phrase is placed in initial position and the subject (when it does not
belong to the phrase containing the wh-constituent) is obligatorily postverbal (120a). Exclamatives
with markers which are originally interrogative elements display the same word order restrictions
(120b):

(120) a. Ce a găsit Ion? vs. *Ce Ion a găsit?

what has found Ion.NOM
‘What did Ion find?’
b. Ce mare e grădina! vs.
what big is garden.DEF.NOM
‘How big the garden is!’
what Ion.NOM has found
*Ce mare grădina e!
what big garden.DEF.NOM is
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4.1.4 In embedded clauses, the complementizer că does not impose word order restrictions, while să
allows for a constituent to occur in initial position only when it is part of the complex complementizer
ca... să (III.1.9.2.1):

(121) a. Ştie că Ion a venit / Ştie că a venit Ion

knows that Ion.NOM has come knows that has come Ion.NOM
‘(S)he knows that Ion came’
b. Vrea să vină Ion / Vrea ca Ion să vină
wants SĂSUBJ come.SUBJ.3SG Ion.NOM wants COMP Ion.NOM SĂSUBJ come.SUBJ.3SG
‘(S)he wants Ion to come’

4.1.5 Wh-interrogatives obligatorily have the word order of direct interrogatives, while relative clauses
do not display this restriction:

(122) a. Nu ştiu unde aşteaptă ei vs. *Nu ştiu unde ei aşteaptă

not (I)know where wait.3PL they.NOM not (I)know where they wait.3PL
‘I do not know where they are waiting’
b. Acesta e locul unde aşteaptă ei / Acesta e locul unde ei aşteaptă
this is place.DEF where wait.3PL they this is place.DEF where they wait.3PL
‘This is the place where they are waiting’

4.1.6 It is not clear whether there exists a dominant word order for objects. The indirect before direct
object word order is often preferred when the objects are DPs (in order to avoid the genitive-dative
ambiguity), but the inverse order is also frequent (123a). The dative before accusative word order is
obligatory only for pronominal clitics (123b), see VI.1:

(123) a. Arăt publicului tabloul / Arăt tabloul publicului

(I)show public.DEF.DAT painting.DEF.ACC (I)show painting.DEF.ACC public.DEF.DAT
‘I show the painting to the public’
b. I-l arăt
CL.DAT.3SG=CL.ACC.3SG (I)show
‘I show it to him / her’

The prepositional object is generally placed after the direct or the indirect object.

4.1.7. The position of adverbial / prepositional adjuncts is relatively free, depending on their semantic
connection with the verb. Situational adjuncts generally occupy the first position in the sentence
(124a), instrumental or manner adjuncts are usually postverbal (124b):

(124) a. Azi la ora 5 are loc întâlnirea

today at hour.DEF five has place meeting.DEF
‘The meeting takes place today at 5 o’clock’
b. Scrie bine cu creionul
writes well with pencil.DEF
‘(S)he can write well with the pencil’

Clausal adjuncts headed by a subordinator have specific word order restrictions, see X.2.8.

4.2 Topicalizing devices

Topicalization – placing a constituent in initial position (at the left periphery) to mark its topic role – is
realized by a number of different fronting constructions: (a) fronting or proper topicalization, a simple
change in word order; (b) left dislocation, accompanied by clitic or demonstrative doubling; (c)
hanging topic, a suspended theme, accompanied or not by specific markers. The topicalization of the
direct object is also favoured by the syntactic restructuring which results from passivization (III.4.1).
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Left dislocation is an extremely frequent topicalization mechanism, and certain structures are
grammaticalized.

4.2.1 Fronting / topicalization

The topicalization of prepositional objects and of adverbials which are typically postverbal is obtained
by simply changing the word order (125a-b). The same behaviour is displayed by predicative objects
(in the rare cases in which they are topicalized (125c)), as well as by those subjects which are
normally posverbal (125d):

(125) a. Îi mai ţii minte pe fraţii mei? La ei mă

CL.ACC.3PL still remember PE brothers.DEF my.M.PL at them.ACC CL.REFL.ACC.1SG
gândeam acum
think.IMPERF.1SG now
‘Do you remember my brothers? It is them that I was thinking of just now’
b. – De ce vorbeşte tare? – Tare vorbeşte pentru că e surd
why speaks loudly loudly speaks because is deaf
‘Why does he speak loudly?’ ‘He speaks loudly because he is deaf’
c. Rochia e albă şi albastră. Albă e doar pe margini
dress.DEF is white and blue white is only on margins
‘The dress is white and blue. It is white only on the margins’
d. Ceaţă e, dar avioanele pot decola
fog is but planes.DEF can.3PL take off
‘It is foggy, but planes can take off’

The aforementioned constituents can advance from an embedded clause to a position in front of the
matrix verb, producing embedded topicalization constructions:

(126) Ceaţă s-ar putea să fie

fog CL.REFL.ACC.3SG=AUX.COND.3SG can.INF SĂSUBJ be.SUBJ.3SG
‘Fog there might be’

Certain objects (realized as bare NPs, indefinite pronouns, etc.) do not occur in clitic doubling
structures; they therefore also produce a topicalized structure:

(127) a. Oameni pricepuţi au şi ei

people skilled have.3PL also they.NOM
‘They too have skilled people’
b. Multe aşteaptă el de la noi
many expects he.NOM from us.ACC
‘He expects many things from us’

4.2.2 Left dislocation

The direct and indirect objects realized as DPs and as strong pronouns are placed in initial position
only in the presence of clitic doubling (the phenomenon of clitic left dislocation, Cinque 1990). In
Romanian, these constituents occur as left dislocations, with obligatory clitic resumption:

(128) a. Citesc cartea / Cartea o citesc

(I)read book.DEF.ACC book.DEF.ACC CL.ACC.3SG (I)read
‘I read the book’ ‘It is the book that I read’
b. (Îi) scriu băiatului / Băiatului îi scriu
CL.DAT.3SG (I)write boy.DEF.DAT boy.DEF.DAT CL.DAT.3SG (I)write
‘I write to the boy’ ‘It is the boy to whom I write’
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The left dislocated constituent is sometimes prosodically isolated (by “comma intonation”). The
extension of clitic doubling to structures with unmarked word order, as an optional (in the case of
indirect objects headed by nouns (128b)) or obligatory mechanism (in the case of direct objects
marked by PE, with nominal or pronominal head (129a-b) and of pronominal indirect objects (129c)) is
a specific feature of Romanian (III.2.1-2.2):

(129) a. Îl văd pe Ion / Pe Ion îl văd

CL.ACC.3SG (I)see PE Ion.ACC
PE Ion.ACC CL.ACC.3SG (I)see
‘I see Ion’ ‘It is Ion that I see’
b. Te văd pe tine / Pe tine te văd
CL.ACC.2SG (I)see PE you.ACC PE you.ACC CL.ACC.2SG (I)see
‘I see you’ ‘It is you that I see’
c. Îţi scriu ţie / Ţie îţi scriu
CL.ACC.2SG (I)write you.DAT you.DAT CL.ACC.2SG (I)write
‘I write to you’ ‘It is to you that I write’

C Left dislocation with clitic doubling is a pan-Romance and a Balkan phenomenon (Krapova
2004); differences occur only in the degree of grammaticalization of doubling in contexts without
dislocation.

H In old Romanian, topicalization (without clitic resumption) was more frequent in cases
where the modern language requires dislocation (with clitic resumption); it also occurred in
configurations with p(r)e:
(130) a. singurătatea şi viaţă îngerească iubiră (Coresi)
loneliness.DEF and life angelic love.PS.3PL
‘loneliness and angelic life is what they liked’
b. pre Dumnezeu uită (Coresi)
PE God forgets
‘(s)he forgets God’

The subject DPs / NPs which normally occur postverbally (XIII.4.1.2) can be left dislocated (with
pronominal resumption) in colloquial speech (Cornilescu 2000; see also III.1.5):

(131) Supărarea trece ea cum trece...

anger.DEF.NOM passes she.NOM how passes
‘Anger will eventually pass’

Embedded argument clauses are topicalized (132a) or left dislocated, with clitic, demonstrative, or
clitic + demonstrative resumption (132b):

(132) a. Că e bun, ştie oricine

that is good knows anybody
b. Că e bun, (asta) (o) ştie oricine
that is good this.F.SG.NOM CL.ACC.F.3SG knows anybody
‘Everybody knows that he is good’

Constituents can advance from the embedded clause to a position in front of the matrix verb,
producing overlapping constructions with left dislocation:

(133) Cartea ştii că ţi-am dat-o

book.DEF.ACC (you)know that CL.DAT.2SG=(I)have given=CL.ACC.F.3SG
‘As for the book, you know that I gave it to you’

4.2.3 Hanging topic

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The hanging topic is realized by syntactic discontinuity and prosodic isolation or by specialized
constructions (with specific markers).
The hanging topic without specific markers is typical of oral constructions (Merlan 1998).
Sometimes it displays pronominal or lexical resumption (134b):

(134) a. Cafea, să n-aud

coffee SĂSUBJ not=(I)hear
b. Cafea, să n-aud de ea / asta / cafea
coffee SĂSUBJ not=(I)hear of it this coffee
‘As for coffee, I do not want to hear about it’

The hanging topic is signalled by specific markers. NP topicalization can receive specific markers –
cât despre, dacă e vorba de, în privinţa, în ceea ce priveşte, referitor la ‘as far as x is concerned’, din
punct de vedere ‘from the point of view of’, etc., which associate with movement to topic position.
The topicalized constituent does not have the expected regular case form and does not enter the
configuration that it would have entered as part of the sentence; nor is it pronominally or lexically
resumed. The connection with its original position is only referential (anaphoric):

(135) a. Cât despre cafeai, Øi este destul de proastă

as for coffee is quite bad
‘As for the coffee, it is quite bad’
b. Dacă e vorba de cafeai, nu vreau să beau Øi
if is talk of coffee not (I)want SĂSUBJ drink.SUBJ.1SG
‘As far as coffee is concerned, I do not want to drink it’

Certain markers such as cât despre ‘as for’ have the role of changing the topic and even of introducing
a new element in the topic position of the sentence, connecting it to the context as if it were already
known.
Specific predicate topicalization structures (which are typically oral, colloquial) are the ones
with the supine ((136a); see IV.4.3.10) and with the preposition DE followed by the predicate (136b):

(136) a. De dormit,# a dormit

DESUPsleep.SUP has slept
‘As for sleeping, s/he slept’
b. De frumoasă,# e frumoasă
DE beautiful.F.SG is beautiful.F.SG
‘As far as beauty is concerned, she is beautiful’

Both constructions require the lexical resumption of the topicalized constituent.

4.2.4 Right dislocation

Right dislocation, as a way of pointing to the topic, is an addition which is prosodically isolated and
often accompanied by clitic (137a) or null subject doubling (137b):

(137) a. Îli cunosc de mult, # [pe fratele tău] i

CL.ACC.3SG (I)know of much PE brother.DEF your.M.SG
‘I have known him for a long time, your brother’
b. proi E foarte simpatic, # [fratele tău]i
is very nice brother.DEF your.M.SG
‘He is very nice, your brother’

4.3 Contrastive topic constructions

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Romanian has a weak adversative connector with the specific role of marking the contrastive topic: iar
‘and; while’ (Zafiu 2005, Vasilescu 2010). A finite verb form cannot be placed directly after iar:

(138) a. Trenurile merg bine, iar autobuzele merg prost

trains.DEF ride well while buses.DEF ride badly
‘Trains are going well, while buses are going badly’
b. *Trenurile merg bine, iar merg prost autobuzele
trains.DEF go.3PL well while go.3PL badly buses.DEF

4.4 Rhematization / foregrounding by pseudo-cleft structures

The typical rhematization structure isolates the topic (by means of a relative clause in subject
position), emphasizing the rheme (in subjective predicative complement position):

(139) [Ceea ce vreau să spun e] [că ai greşit]

what (I)want SĂ say.SUBJ.1SG is that (you)have mistaken
‘What I want to say is that you made a mistake’

C Romanian pseudo-cleft constructions (X.3.4) are relatively new, of learnèd origin (probably
loan translations) and belong to the standard and high register.

4.5 Focalization

The (contrastive) focus (which introduces a contrast with the expectations of the informational
background) activates presuppositions; it is marked by intonation (phrasal stress), sometimes
associated with word order changes (fronting) or with focalizers.
The preferred focalization position is the beginning of the sentence. Both the topic and the
emphatic rheme (the focus) tend therefore to occur in initial position; the difference is that the topic is
unmarked while the focus bears phrasal stress and can take focalizers (focusing adverbs) to its left.

4.5.1 Focalization through phrasal stress allows the free placement of constituents in the sentence:

(140) Deocamdată au mâncat [FOCUS CIREŞELE] (şi au lăsat căpşunile)

So far (they)have eaten cherries. DEF and (they)have left strawberries.DEF
‘For now they have eaten the cherries (and they have left the strawberries)’

4.5.2 Word order change (movement to initial position) associates with phrasal stress:

(141) [FOCUS Cu trenul] merg la mare, nu cu maşina

by train.DEF (I)go to seaside, not by car.DEF
‘It is by train that I go to the seaside, not by car’

Movement to initial position can also be a type of left dislocation, accompanied by syntactic doubling
(by clitic or other anaphors) in the case of the direct and indirect objects:

(142) [FOCUSPe poliţişti] i-au chemat vecinii, nu pe pompieri

PE policemen CL.ACC.3PL=have called neighbours not PE firemen
‘It is the police that the neighbours called, not the firemen?’

4.5.3 Marking by focalizers (chiar ‘self / in person’, şi ‘also’, tocmai ‘self / precisely’, etc.), including
the constituent negation nu ‘not’ requires phrasal stress and allows for the constituent to be freely
placed in the sentence:

(143) Au venit chiar [FOCUS proprietarii]

have.3PL come in-person owners.DEF.NOM
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‘The owners came themselves’

Besides the role of emphasising a rhematic constituent, focalizers also have specific semantic-
pragmatic values (VIII.5.5).