Part of
Experimental Linguistics: Integration of theories and applicationsEdited by Gary D. Prideaux, Bruce L. Derwing and Will Baker
[Studies in the Sciences of Language Series 3] 1980
► pp. 55–63
Recent developments in linguistic theory have been motivated by an increasing concern with semantic distinctions such as "topic" and "focus" which were largely ignored in earlier theoretical treatments. However, rather distinct definitions of the term "focus" can be found in the linguistic literature. This paper investigates some recent theories of grammatical focus, both transformational and non-transformational, with the aim of extracting questions which can be investigated experimentally. A framework is developed in terms of which experimental investigations of focus can be carried out.