Abstract This chapter reconsiders and develops a proposal presented in Belletti (2001). The discussion that follows leaves the core insight of the original proposal essentially unchanged, although some aspects of the implementation are revised in a way that leads to changes in some areas; the overall empirical coverage of the proposal itself is also widened. Recent studies on the cartography of the left periphery of the clause, started with Rizzi (1997) and subsequent work (Poletto 2000; Beninca ‘ 2001; Beninca’ and Poletto [chapter 3 in this volume], and Poletto and Pollock [chapter 9 in this volume] and references cited therein), have come to the conclusion that the clause (IP, henceforth for simplicity) external area, traditionally labeled CP, is indeed a much richer and articulated space than traditionally assumed. Several dedicated positions split the single head C, including positions indicating the Force of the following clause and its Fin(itness). As extensively discussed in Rizzi (1997) and related work, between Force and Fin various other CP internal positions are identified: crucially a Focus position surrounded by (possibly iterated) Topic positions. Processes of Focalization and Topicalization are thus analyzed as involving movement of a phrase to the dedicated position in the left periphery. In this view, the different interpretations of the peripheral constituent, either as a topic or as a focus with respect to the following sentence, are automatic reflexes of the derived configuration.
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