The Meaning of Topic and Focus

Based on examples from German and English, this study provides an illuminating and ground-breaking account of the complex interaction of intonational phenomena, semantics and pragmatics.

Autorentext

Büring, Daniel

Zusammenfassung
This study provides an illuminating and ground-breaking account of the complex interaction of intonational phenomena, semantics and pragmatics. Based on examples from German and English, and centred on an analysis of the fall-rise intonation contour, a semantic interpretation for two different pitch accents - Focus and Topic - is developed. The cross-sentence, as well as the sentence internal semantic effects of these accents, follow from the given treatment. The account is based on Montogovian possible world semantics and Chomskian generative syntax.

Inhalt

Chapter 1 Basic Assumptions; Chapter 2 Focus and Discourse; Chapter 3 The 59th Street Bridge Accent; Chapter 4 Quantifiers as S-Topics; Chapter 5 The Great Scope Inversion Conspiracy; Chapter 6 The Universal Disambiguator; Chapter 7 Summary;