Focus in Generative Grammar
| University of British Columbia, Vancouver
The topic of this book is the notion of ‘focus’ and its linguistic characterization. The main thesis is that focus has a uniform grammatical identification only as a syntactic element with – in English at least – a certain systematic phonological interpretation and – presumably universally – a range of semantic interpretations. In broad respects, the framework within this investigation is conducted is that of Chomsky & Lasnik (1977) and the subsequent Government and Binding framework. After considering defining the location of prominence in a focused phrase in terms of constituent structure, the author argues that an argument structure approach to the focus phrase/prominence relation is more promising. This is then exemplified in analyses of cleft focus and constructional focus.
[Studies in Generative Linguistic Analysis, 4] 1986. ix, 221 pp.
Publishing status: Available | Original publisher: E. Story-Scientia
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
|
Preface
|
vii
|
|
Dedication
|
ix
|
|
Introduction
|
1
|
|
Chapter 1: Accent and Focus
|
5
|
|
1.1. The NSR and the NSR'
|
5
|
|
1.2. The NSR”
|
18
|
|
1.3. Prominence
|
31
|
|
Chapter 2: The Interpretation of Focus
|
37
|
|
2.1. The Presupposition Analysis
|
41
|
|
2.2. c-construable
|
46
|
|
2.3. Narrow Focus, Contrast, and Default Accent
|
67
|
|
Chapter 3: The Representation of Focus
|
79
|
|
3.1. Focus and Argument Structure
|
80
|
|
3.2. The Structure of Discourse
|
98
|
|
Chapter 4: Constructional Focus
|
109
|
|
4.1. The Constructional Focus Principle
|
109
|
|
4.2. The Constructional Focus Position
|
121
|
|
Chapter 5: Cleft Focus
|
127
|
|
5.1. The Interpretation of Clefts
|
128
|
|
5.2. The Structure of Clefts
|
135
|
|
5.3. Cleft Focus Constructions and Parametric Variation
|
154
|
|
Appendix — On Overt wh Phrases in English Cleft Clauses
|
161
|
|
Chapter 6: Summary
|
171
|
|
Footnotes
|
179
|
|
References
|
213
|
Cited by
Cited by other publications
No author info given
2011.
In The Handbook of Phonological Theory,
► pp. 779 ff. 
No author info given
2016.
In Bare Argument Ellipsis and Focus [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 233],
No author info given
2017.
In Cameroon Pidgin English [London Oriental and African Language Library, 20],
Aravind, Athulya, Martin Hackl & Ken Wexler
2018. Syntactic and Pragmatic Factors in Children’s Comprehension of Cleft Constructions.
Language Acquisition 25:3 ► pp. 284 ff.
Bader, Markus
2000.
In German Sentence Processing [Studies in Theoretical Psycholinguistics, 24],
► pp. 187 ff.
Ball, Catherine N.
1994. Relative pronouns in it-clefts: The last seven centuries.
Language Variation and Change 6:2 ► pp. 179 ff.
Ball, Catherine N.
1996. A diachronic study of relative markers in spoken and written English.
Language Variation and Change 8:2 ► pp. 227 ff.
Bell, Melanie J. & Ingo Plag
2013. Informativity and analogy in English compound stress.
Word Structure 6:2 ► pp. 129 ff.
Biezma, María
2014. Multiple Focus Strategies inPro-Drop Languages: Evidence from Ellipsis in Spanish.
Syntax 17:2 ► pp. 91 ff.
Breen, Mara, Evelina Fedorenko, Michael Wagner & Edward Gibson
2010. Acoustic correlates of information structure.
Language and Cognitive Processes 25:7-9 ► pp. 1044 ff.
Brown, Jason & Karsten Koch
2016. Focus and Change in Polynesian Languages*.
Australian Journal of Linguistics 36:3 ► pp. 304 ff.
Büring, Daniel
2019.
In The Semantics of Plurals, Focus, Degrees, and Times,
► pp. 137 ff.
Carlson, Katy, Michael Walsh Dickey, Lyn Frazier & Charles Clifton
2009. Information structure expectations in sentence comprehension.
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 62:1 ► pp. 114 ff.
Cat, Cécile De
2005. French subject clitics are not agreement markers.
Lingua 115:9 ► pp. 1195 ff.
Cheung, Candice Chi-Hang
2014. Wh-fronting and the left periphery in Mandarin.
Journal of East Asian Linguistics 23:4 ► pp. 393 ff.
Cheung, Lawrence Yam-Leung
2009. Dislocation focus construction in Chinese.
Journal of East Asian Linguistics 18:3 ► pp. 197 ff.
Cohan, Jocelyn
2001.
In Modeling and Using Context [Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2116],
► pp. 102 ff.
Cruz, Adriana & Óscar Loureda
2019.
In Empirical Studies of the Construction of Discourse [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 305],
► pp. 195 ff.
CULICOVER, PETER W. & SUSANNE WINKLER
2008. English focus inversion.
Journal of Linguistics 44:3 ► pp. 625 ff.
Delin, Judy
1995. Presupposition and shared knowledge in it-clefts.
Language and Cognitive Processes 10:2 ► pp. 97 ff.
Dikken, Marcel Den
2006. Either-Float and the Syntax of Co-or-dination.
Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 24:3 ► pp. 689 ff.
Donaldson, Bryan
2011. Nativelike right-dislocation in near-native French.
Second Language Research 27:3 ► pp. 361 ff.
Donaldson, Bryan
2012. Syntax and Discourse in Near-Native French: Clefts and Focus.
Language Learning 62:3 ► pp. 902 ff.
Erteschik-Shir, Nomi
1991. M. S. Rochemont & P. W. Culicover, English focus constructions and the theory of grammar. (Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 52.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Pp. vii + 210..
Journal of Linguistics 27:2 ► pp. 525 ff.
Fanselow, Gisbert & Denisa Lenertová
2011. Left peripheral focus: mismatches between syntax and information structure.
Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 29:1 ► pp. 169 ff.
Faure, Richard & Katerina Palasis
2020. Exclusivity! Wh-fronting is not optional wh-movement in Colloquial French.
Natural Language & Linguistic Theory
Feng, Shengli
1996. Prosodically constrained syntactic changes in Early Archaic Chinese.
Journal of East Asian Linguistics 5:4 ► pp. 323 ff.
Feng, Shengli
2003. Prosodically constrained postverbal PPs in Mandarin Chinese.
Linguistics 41:6
Feng, Shengli
2015. On Nuclear Stress Rule in Chinese.
Cognitive Linguistic Studies 2:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Ferreira, Fernanda
2007. Prosody and performance in language production.
Language and Cognitive Processes 22:8 ► pp. 1151 ff.
Forcadell, Montserrat & Jaume Llopis
2014. Structural change in Catalan discourse.
Studies in Language 38:2 ► pp. 237 ff.
Féry, Caroline
2013. Focus as prosodic alignment.
Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 31:3 ► pp. 683 ff.
Féry, Caroline
2020.
In The Cambridge Handbook of Germanic Linguistics,
► pp. 661 ff.
Geurts, Bart & Rob van der Sandt
2004. Interpreting focus.
Theoretical Linguistics 30:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Glatz, Daniel & Ralf Klabunde
2003. Focus as perspectivation.
Linguistics 41:5
Gotzner, Nicole
2017.
In Alternative Sets in Language Processing,
► pp. 11 ff.
Gotzner, Nicole
2019. The role of focus intonation in implicature computation: a comparison with only and also.
Natural Language Semantics 27:3 ► pp. 189 ff.
Gussenhoven, Carlos
1991. The English Rhythm Rule as an accent deletion rule.
Phonology 8:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Hartmann, Jutta M.
2013. Freezing in it-clefts.
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 58:3 ► pp. 487 ff.
Heggie, Lorie
1993. The range of null operators: Evidence from clefting.
Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 11:1 ► pp. 45 ff.
Herbeck, Peter
2018.
In Pronouns in Embedded Contexts at the Syntax-Semantics Interface [Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy, 99],
► pp. 171 ff.
Hetland, Jorunn
1994.
In Was determiniert Wortstellungsvariation?,
► pp. 321 ff.
Hoof, Hanneke van
2003. The rise in the risefall contour: does it evoke a contrastive topic or a contrastive focus?.
Linguistics 41:3
Hoot, Bradley
2017. Narrow presentational focus in heritage Spanish and the syntax‒discourse interface.
Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 7:1 ► pp. 63 ff.
Hoskins, S.
1996.
In Proceeding of Fourth International Conference on Spoken Language Processing. ICSLP '96,
► pp. 1632 ff.
Hsu, Yu-Yin & Claudia Felser
2019. Associations between focus constructions and levels of exhaustivity: An experimental investigation of Chinese.
PLOS ONE 14:10 ► pp. e0223502 ff.
INOUE, KAZUKO
2004. Conceptual and Methodological Bases of the Minimalist Program (N. Chomsky, On Nature and Language).
ENGLISH LINGUISTICS 21:2 ► pp. 514 ff.
Ishihara, Shinichiro
2017.
In Contrastiveness in Information Structure, Alternatives and Scalar Implicatures [Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 91],
► pp. 399 ff.
JOHANSSON, MATS
2001. Clefts in contrast: a contrastive study of it clefts and wh clefts in English and Swedish texts and translations.
Linguistics 39:3
Jokweni, Mbulelo W.
1996. Deriving phonological phrases in Xhosa.
South African Journal of Linguistics 14:2 ► pp. 51 ff.
Kahnemuyipour, Arsalan
2001. On Wh-questions in Persian.
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 46:1-2 ► pp. 41 ff.
Kaiser, Elsi
2011. Focusing on pronouns: Consequences of subjecthood, pronominalisation, and contrastive focus.
Language and Cognitive Processes 26:10 ► pp. 1625 ff.
Kaiser, Elsi
2016.
In Visually Situated Language Comprehension [Advances in Consciousness Research, 93],
► pp. 151 ff.
Kennedy, Becky
2005. Interpretive effects in multiple interrogation.
Journal of Pragmatics 37:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
KOBAYASHI, KEIICHIRO
1997. A MINIMALIST APPROACH TO PSEUDOCLEFTS IN ENGLISH.
ENGLISH LINGUISTICS 14:0 ► pp. 1 ff.
Koch, Karsten A.
2011.
In Prosodic Categories: Production, Perception and Comprehension [Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, ],
► pp. 111 ff.
Koch, Karsten A.
2013. Focus on head-final relatives.
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 58:2 ► pp. 191 ff.
Kratzer, Angelika
2004. Interpreting focus: Presupposed or expressive meanings? A comment on Geurts and van der Sandt.
Theoretical Linguistics 30:1
Kügler, Frank & Caroline Féry
2017. Postfocal Downstep in German.
Language and Speech 60:2 ► pp. 260 ff.
Lai, Jackie Yan-Ki
2019. Parallel copying in dislocation copying: evidence from Cantonese.
Journal of East Asian Linguistics 28:3 ► pp. 243 ff.
Lambova, Mariana
2001. On A-bar movements in Bulgarian and their interaction.
The Linguistic Review 18:4
Leal, Tania, Emilie Destruel & Bradley Hoot
2019. The acquisition of Focus in L2 Spanish.
Second Language Research 35:4 ► pp. 449 ff.
Liakin, Denis
2007. Les questions multiples : le débat continue.
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 52:3 ► pp. 279 ff.
Lin, Jo-Wang
1992. The syntax of zenmeyang ?how? and weishenme ?why? in Mandarin Chinese.
Journal of East Asian Linguistics 1:3 ► pp. 293 ff.
LóPEZ, LUIS & SUSANNE WINKLER
2000. Focus and topic in VP-anaphora constructions.
Linguistics 38:4
MARUTA, TADAO
1992. English Focus Constructions and the Theory of Grammar, by Michael S. Rochemont and Peter W. Culicover, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1990, vii+210 pp.
ENGLISH LINGUISTICS 9:0 ► pp. 357 ff.
NIKOLAEVA, IRINA
2001. Secondary topic as a relation in information structure.
Linguistics 39:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Noonan, Máire B.
1997. Functional Architecture and Wh-Movement: Irish as a Case in Point.
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 42:1-2 ► pp. 111 ff.
Olarrea, Antxon
2012.
In The Handbook of Hispanic Linguistics,
► pp. 603 ff.
Otero, Carlos P.
1996.
In Current Issues in Comparative Grammar [Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 35],
► pp. 296 ff.
Po-lun, Peppina Lee & Haihua Pan
2001. The Chinese negation marker bu and its association with focus.
Linguistics 39:4
Reeve, Matthew & Glyn Hicks
2017. Adjunct Extraposition: Base Generation or Movement?.
Syntax 20:3 ► pp. 215 ff.
Reis, Marga & Inger Rosengren
1992. What do Wh-imperatives tell us about Wh-movement?.
Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 10:1 ► pp. 79 ff.
Rochemont, Michael S.
1986.
Paul Werth. Focus, Coherence, and Emphasis. London: Croom Helm. 1984. Pp. 293..
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 31:2 ► pp. 189 ff.
Rooth, Mats
1992. A theory of focus interpretation.
Natural Language Semantics 1:1 ► pp. 75 ff.
Samek-Lodovici, Vieri
2005. Prosody–Syntax Interaction in the Expression of Focus.
Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 23:3 ► pp. 687 ff.
Sgall, Petr
1996.
In Handbook of Pragmatics,
► pp. 1 ff.
SHIMA, ETSURO
2008. Two Types of Elliptical Constructions (S. Winkler, Ellipsis and Focus in Generative Grammar).
ENGLISH LINGUISTICS 25:1 ► pp. 292 ff.
Slioussar, Natalia
2014.
In Minimalism and Beyond [Language Faculty and Beyond, 11],
► pp. 350 ff.
Smith, Carlota S.
2003.
In Modes of Discourse,
Smyth, Ronald H.
1988. Contextual Motivation and Working Memory.
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 33:3 ► pp. 231 ff.
Soares, Eduardo Correa
2016. Yes-No Answers, Partial Pro-drop Languages and Machine Translation.
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 231 ► pp. 135 ff.
Stevens, Jon S. & Gareth Roberts
2019. Noise, Economy, and the Emergence of Information Structure in a Laboratory Language.
Cognitive Science 43:2 ► pp. e12717 ff.
Szendrői, Kriszta
2017.
In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Syntax, Second Edition,
► pp. 1 ff.
Sæbø, Kjell Johan
2006. Focus interpretation in Thetic statements: Alternative Semantics and Optimality Theory Pragmatics.
Journal of Logic, Language and Information 16:1 ► pp. 15 ff.
TAKAMI, KEN-ICHI
1987. ADJUNCTS AND THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF VP.
ENGLISH LINGUISTICS 4:0 ► pp. 55 ff.
Tonhauser, Judith
2015. Are ‘informative presuppositions’ presuppositions?.
Language and Linguistics Compass 9:2 ► pp. 77 ff.
Tuller, Laurice
1992. The syntax of postverbal focus constructions in Chadic.
Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 10:2 ► pp. 303 ff.
Watson, Duane G., Cassandra L. Jacobs & Andrés Buxó‐Lugo
2020. Prosody indexes both competence and performance.
WIREs Cognitive Science 11:3
Winkler, Susanne & Edward Göbbel
2002. Focus, p-movement, and the nuclear-stress rule: a view from Germanic and Romance.
Linguistics 40:6
Zhang, Huili, Haifeng Duan & Haihua Pan
2017. 焦點–重音原則與漢語的「把」字句 (Focus-Stress Principle and Ba construction).
Language and Linguistics 18:3 ► pp. 479 ff.
ZHOU, PENG & STEPHEN CRAIN
2010. Focus identification in child Mandarin.
Journal of Child Language 37:5 ► pp. 965 ff.
Zimmermann, Malte
2008. Contrastive focus and emphasis.
Acta Linguistica Hungarica 55:3-4 ► pp. 347 ff.
Zobl, Helmut
1989. Modularity in Adult L2 Acquisition.
Language Learning 39:1 ► pp. 49 ff.
Zubizarreta, María Luisa & Jean-Roger Vergnaud
2017.
In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Syntax, Second Edition,
► pp. 1 ff.
Özsoy, A. Sumru
2019.
In Word Order in Turkish [Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 97],
► pp. 139 ff.
İşsever, Selçuk
2019.
In Word Order in Turkish [Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 97],
► pp. 67 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 05 september 2020. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
Subjects
Linguistics
BIC Subject: CF – Linguistics
BISAC Subject: LAN009000 – LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General
U.S. Library of Congress Control Number: 86003568