Question-answer test and givenness
- In order to investigate the empirical properties of focus, it is necessary to diagnose focus (or: "what is focused") in particular linguistic examples. It is often taken for granted that the application of one single diagnostic tool, the so-called question-answer test, which roughly says that whatever a question asks for is focused in the answer, is a fool-proof test for focus. This paper investigates one example class where such uncritical belief in the question-answer test has led to the assumption of rather complex focus projection rules: in these examples, pitch accent placement has been claimed to depend on certain parts of the focused constituents being given or not. It is demonstrated that such focus projection rules are unnecessarily complex and in turn require the assumption of unnecessarily complicated meaning rules, not to speak of the difficulties to give a precise semantic/pragmatic definition of the allegedly involved givenness property. For the sake of the argument, an alternative analysis is put forward which reliesIn order to investigate the empirical properties of focus, it is necessary to diagnose focus (or: "what is focused") in particular linguistic examples. It is often taken for granted that the application of one single diagnostic tool, the so-called question-answer test, which roughly says that whatever a question asks for is focused in the answer, is a fool-proof test for focus. This paper investigates one example class where such uncritical belief in the question-answer test has led to the assumption of rather complex focus projection rules: in these examples, pitch accent placement has been claimed to depend on certain parts of the focused constituents being given or not. It is demonstrated that such focus projection rules are unnecessarily complex and in turn require the assumption of unnecessarily complicated meaning rules, not to speak of the difficulties to give a precise semantic/pragmatic definition of the allegedly involved givenness property. For the sake of the argument, an alternative analysis is put forward which relies solely on alternative sets following Mats Rooth's work, and avoids any recourse to givenness. As it turns out, this alternative analysis is not only simpler but also makes in a critical case the better predictions.…
Author details: | Elke Kasimir |
---|---|
URN: | urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-8698 |
ISSN: | 1866-4725 |
ISSN: | 1614-4708 |
Title of parent work (German): | Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632 |
Subtitle (German): | some question marks |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Publication year: | 2005 |
Publishing institution: | Universität Potsdam |
Contributing corporation: | Sonderforschungsbereich 632 Informationsstruktur <Potsdam> |
Release date: | 2006/09/14 |
Tag: | focus; givenness |
Issue: | 3 |
First page: | 1 |
Last Page: | 52 |
Source: | Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632. - Vol. 3 |
RVK - Regensburg classification: | ER 300 |
Organizational units: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Strukturbereich Kognitionswissenschaften / Department Linguistik |
DDC classification: | 4 Sprache / 40 Sprache / 400 Sprache |
Collection(s): | Universität Potsdam / Schriftenreihen / Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632, ISSN 1866-4725 / ISIS (2005) 03 |
Institution name at the time of the publication: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Linguistik / Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft |
License (German): | Keine öffentliche Lizenz: Unter Urheberrechtsschutz |
External remark: | erschienen in: Approaches and findings in oral, written and gestural language. - Potsdam : Univ.-Verl., 2005. - 244 S. (Interdisciplinary studies on information structure ; 3) ISBN 3-937786-01-5 URN: urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-8255 zugleich in Printform erschienen im Universitätsverlag Potsdam. |