Direct and indirect aboutness topics

We propose a definition of aboutness topicality that not only encompasses individual denoting DPs, but also indefinites. We concentrate on the interpretative effects of marking indefinites as topics: they either receive widest scope in their clause, or they are interpreted in the restrictor of an overt or covert Q-adverb. We show that in the first case they are direct aboutness topics insofar as they are the subject of a predication expressed by the comment, while in the second case they are indirect aboutness topics: they define the subject of a higher-order predication – namely the set of situations that the respective Q-adverb quantifies over.

Metadaten
Author details:	Cornelia Endriss GND, Stefan Hinterwimmer
URN:	urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19640
Publication type:	Article
Language:	English
Publication year:	2007
Publishing institution:	Universität Potsdam
Release date:	2008/07/25
Tag:	Aboutness Topics; Indefinites; Left-Dislocation; Quantificational Variability Effects; Wide Scope
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 (2007) 06
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: The Notions of information structure / (eds.) Caroline Féry ... - Potsdam : Univ.-Verl., 2007. - 235 S.(Interdisciplinary studies on information structure ; 6)ISSN 1614-4708ISBN 978-3-939469-88-9 URN: urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-15472 --> bestellen