TY - JOUR A1 - Uth, Melanie A1 - Gutiérrez-Bravo, Rodrigo A1 - Fliessbach, Jan T1 - On the incompatibility of object fronting and progressive aspect in Yucatec Maya JF - Frontiers in language sciences N2 - In this paper, we present data from an elicitation study and a corpus study that support the observation that the Yucatec Maya progressive aspect auxiliary táan is replaced by the habitual auxiliary k in sentences with contrastively focused fronted objects. Focus has been extensively studied in Yucatec, yet the incompatibility of object fronting and progressive aspect in Yucatec Maya remains understudied. Both our experimental results and our corpus study point in the direction that this incompatibility may very well be categorical. Theoretically, we take a progressive reading to be derived from an imperfectivity operator in combination with a singular operator, and we propose that this singular operator implicates the negation of event plurality, leading to an exhaustive interpretation which ranks below corrective focus on a contrastive focus scale. This means that, in a sentence with object focus fronting, the use of the marked auxiliary táan (as opposed to the more general k) would trigger two contrastive foci, which would be an unlikely and probably dispreferred speech act. KW - fronting KW - progressive KW - Yucatec Maya KW - habitual KW - focus Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/flang.2023.1286520 SN - 2813-4605 VL - 2 PB - Frontiers Media S.A. CY - Lausanne, Switzerland ER - TY - THES A1 - Shipova, Evgeniya T1 - Formal analysis of èto-clefts in Russian: syntax and semantics T1 - Formale Analyse von èto-Clefts im Russischen: Syntax und Semantik N2 - Èto-clefts are Russian focus constructions with the demonstrative pronoun èto ‘this’ at the beginning: “Èto Mark vyigral gonku” (“It was Mark who won the race”). They are often being compared with English it-clefts, German es-clefts, as well as the corresponding focus-background structures in other languages. In terms of semantics, èto-clefts have two important properties which are cross-linguistically typical for clefts: existence presupposition (“Someone won the race”) and exhaustivity (“Nobody except Mark won the race”). However, the exhaustivity effects are not as strong as exhaustivity effects in structures with the exclusive only and require more research. At the same time, the question if the syntactic structure of èto-clefts matches the biclausal structure of English and German clefts, remains open. There are arguments in favor of biclausality, as well as monoclausality. Besides, there is no consistency regarding the status of èto itself. Finally, the information structure of èto-clefts has remained underexplored in the existing literature. This research investigates the information-structural, syntactic, and semantic properties of Russian clefts, both theoretically (supported by examples from Russian text corpora and judgments from native speakers) and experimentally. It is determined which desired changes in the information structure motivate native speakers to choose an èto-cleft and not the canonical structure or other focus realization tools. Novel syntactic tests are conducted to find evidence for bi-/monoclausality of èto-clefts, as well as for base-generation or movement of the cleft pivot. It is hypothesized that èto has a certain important function in clefts, and its status is investigated. Finally, new experiments on the nature of exhaustivity in èto-clefts are conducted. They allow for direct cross-linguistic comparison, using an incremental-information paradigm with truth-value judgments. In terms of information structure, this research makes a new proposal that presents èto-clefts as structures with an inherent focus-background bipartitioning. Even though èto-clefts are used in typical focus contexts, evidence was found that èto-clefts (as well as Russian thetic clefts) allow for both new information focus and contrastive focus. Èto-clefts are pragmatically acceptable when a singleton answer to the implied question is expected (e.g. “It was Mark who won the race” but not “It was Mark who came to the party”). Importantly, èto in Russian clefts is neither dummy, nor redundant, but is a topic expression; conveys familiarity which triggers existence presupposition; refers to an instantiated event, or a known/perceivable situation; finally, èto plays an important role in the spoken language as a tool for speech coherency and a focus marker. In terms of syntax, this research makes a new monoclausal proposal and shows evidence that the cleft pivot undergoes movement to the left peripheral position. Èto is proposed to be TopP. Finally, in terms of semantics, a novel cross-linguistic evaluation of Russian clefts is made. Experiments show that the exhaustivity inference in èto-clefts is not robust. Participants used different strategies in resolving exhaustivity, falling into 2 groups: one group considered èto-clefts exhaustive, while another group considered them non-exhaustive. Hence, there is evidence for the pragmatic nature of exhaustivity in èto-clefts. The experimental results for èto-clefts are similar to the experimental results for clefts in German, French and Akan. It is concluded that speakers use different tools available in their languages to produce structures with similar interpretive properties. N2 - Èto-Clefts (Spaltsätze) sind russische Fokuskonstruktionen mit dem Demonstrativpronomen èto 'dies' am Anfang: “Èto Mark vyigral gonku” ("Es war Mark, der das Rennen gewonnen hat"). Sie werden oft mit englischen it-Clefts, deutschen es-Clefts sowie den entsprechenden Fokus-Hintergrund-Strukturen in anderen Sprachen verglichen. In semantischer Hinsicht haben èto-Clefts zwei wichtige Eigenschaften, die für Clefts typisch sind: Existenzpräsupposition ("Jemand hat das Rennen gewonnen") und Exhaustivität ("Niemand außer Mark hat das Rennen gewonnen"). Die Exhaustivitätseffekte sind jedoch nicht so stark wie die Exhaustivitätseffekte in Strukturen mit dem Exklusiven "only" ("nur") und erfordern weitere Forschung. Gleichzeitig bleibt die Frage offen, ob die syntaktische Struktur von èto-clefts der biklausalen Struktur von englischen und deutschen Clefts entspricht. Es gibt Argumente für Biklausalität sowie für Monoklausalität. Außerdem gibt es keine Einigung hinsichtlich des Status von èto selbst. Schließlich wurde die Informationsstruktur von èto-Clefts in der vorhandenen Literatur kaum erforscht. Diese Forschung untersucht die informationsstrukturellen, syntaktischen und semantischen Eigenschaften russischer Clefts sowohl theoretisch (gestützt auf Beispiele aus russischen Textkorpora und Schätzungen von Muttersprachlern) als auch experimentell. Es wird bestimmt, welche gewünschten Änderungen in der Informationsstruktur Muttersprachler dazu motivieren, eine èto-Cleft und nicht die kanonische Struktur oder andere Fokusrealisierungswerkzeuge zu wählen. Neue syntaktische Tests werden durchgeführt, um Hinweise auf die Biklausalität oder Monoklausalität von èto-Clefts sowie auf die Basisgenerierung oder Bewegung des Cleft-Pivots zu finden. Es wird die Hypothese aufgestellt, dass èto eine bestimmte wichtige Funktion in Clefts hat, und sein Status wird untersucht. Schließlich werden neue Experimente zur Natur der Exhaustivität in èto-Clefts durchgeführt. Sie ermöglichen einen direkten sprachübergreifenden Vergleich unter Verwendung eines inkrementellen Informationsparadigmas mit Wahrheitswerturteilen. In Bezug auf die Informationsstruktur gibt diese Forschung eine neue Analyse, die èto-Clefts als Strukturen mit einer inhärenten Fokus-Hintergrund-Aufteilung präsentiert. Obwohl èto-Clefts in typischen Fokus-Kontexten verwendet werden, wurde es festgestellt, dass èto-Clefts (genauso wie russische thetische Clefts) sowohl Informationsfokus als auch kontrastiven Fokus ermöglichen. Èto-Clefts sind pragmatisch akzeptabel, wenn eine Einzelantwort auf die implizite Frage erwartet wird (z. B. "Es war Mark, der das Rennen gewonnen hat", aber nicht "Es war Mark, der zur Party kam"). Wichtig ist noch, dass èto in russischen Clefts weder einen Platzhalter noch leer ist, sondern ein Topikausdruck; èto zeigt Familiarität, die eine Existenzpräsupposition auslöst; èto bezieht sich auf ein konkretes Ereignis oder eine bekannte/wahrnehmbare Situation; schließlich spielt èto eine wichtige Rolle in der gesprochenen Sprache als Werkzeug für die Kohärenz und als Fokusmarker. In Bezug auf Syntax macht diese Forschung einen neuen Vorschlag für eine monoklasuale Struktur und zeigt Hinweise darauf, dass das Cleft-Pivot eine Bewegung in die linke periphere Position durchläuft. Èto wird als TopP analysiert. Schließlich wird in Bezug auf Semantik eine neuartige sprachübergreifende Bewertung russischer Clefts vorgenommen. Experimente zeigen, dass die Exhaustivitätsinferenz in èto-Clefts nicht robust ist. Die Teilnehmer verwendeten verschiedene Strategien zur Auflösung der Exhaustivität und fielen in 2 Gruppen: Eine Gruppe betrachtete èto-Clefts als exhaustiv, während eine andere Gruppe sie als nicht exhaustiv betrachtete. Daher gibt es Hinweise auf die pragmatische Natur der Exhaustivität in èto-Clefts. Die experimentellen Ergebnisse für èto-Clefts sind den experimentellen Ergebnissen für Clefts im Deutschen, Französischen und Akan sehr ähnlich. Es wird geschlossen, dass Sprecher verschiedene verfügbare Werkzeuge in ihren Sprachen verwenden, um Strukturen mit ähnlichen interpretativen Eigenschaften zu produzieren. KW - clefts KW - Russian KW - Spaltsätze KW - Russisch KW - exhaustivity KW - Exhaustivität KW - information structure KW - Informationsstruktur KW - focus KW - Fokus KW - biclausality KW - Biklausalität KW - familiarity KW - Familiarität KW - experimental studies KW - experimentelle Studien Y1 - 2024 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-630149 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schreiber, Alexander A1 - Onea Gáspár, Edgar T1 - Are narrow focus exhaustivity inferences Bayesian inferences? JF - Frontiers in psychology / Frontiers Research Foundation N2 - In successful communication, the literal meaning of linguistic utterances is often enriched by pragmatic inferences. Part of the pragmatic reasoning underlying such inferences has been successfully modeled as Bayesian goal recognition in the Rational Speech Act (RSA) framework. In this paper, we try to model the interpretation of question-answer sequences with narrow focus in the answer in the RSA framework, thereby exploring the effects of domain size and prior probabilities on interpretation. Should narrow focus exhaustivity inferences be actually based on Bayesian inference involving prior probabilities of states, RSA models should predict a dependency of exhaustivity on these factors. We present experimental data that suggest that interlocutors do not act according to the predictions of the RSA model and that exhaustivity is in fact approximately constant across different domain sizes and priors. The results constitute a conceptual challenge for Bayesian accounts of the underlying pragmatic inferences. KW - pragmatics KW - Bayesian models KW - rational speech act models KW - implicatures KW - focus KW - exhaustivity Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.677223 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 12 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gotzner, Nicole A1 - Romoli, Jacopo T1 - Meaning and alternatives JF - Annual review of linguistics N2 - Alternatives and competition in language are pervasive at all levels of linguistic analysis. More specifically, alternatives have been argued to play a prominent role in an ever-growing class of phenomena in the investigation of natural language meaning. In this article, we focus on scalar implicatures, as they are arguably the most paradigmatic case of an alternative-based phenomenon. We first review the main challenge for theories of alternatives, the so-called symmetry problem, and we briefly discuss how it has shaped the different approaches to alternatives. We then turn to two more recent challenges concerning scalar diversity and the inferences of sentences with multiple scalars. Finally, we describe several related alternative-based phenomena and recent conceptual approaches to alternatives. As we discuss, while important progress has been made, much more work is needed both on the theoretical side and on understanding the empirical landscape better. KW - alternatives KW - scalar implicatures KW - symmetry problem KW - focus KW - polarity KW - sensitivity KW - negative strengthening Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-031220-012013 SN - 2333-9691 SN - 2333-9683 VL - 8 SP - 213 EP - 234 PB - Annual Reviews CY - Palo Alto ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gotzner, Nicole A1 - Spalek, Katharina T1 - Expectations about upcoming discourse referents BT - Effects of pitch accents and focus particles in German language production JF - International review of pragmatics : IRP N2 - In the current study, we explore how different information-structural devices affect which referents conversational partners expect in the upcoming discourse. Our main research question is how pitch accents (H*, L+H*) and focus particles (German nur `only' and auch 'also') affect speakers' choices to mention focused referents, previously mentioned alternatives or new, inferable alternatives. Participants in our experiment were presented with short discourses involving two referents and were asked to orally produce two sentences that continue the story. An analysis of speakers' continuations showed that participants were most likely to mention a contextual alternative in the condition with only and the L+H* conditions, followed by H* conditions. In the condition with also, in turn, participants mentioned both the focused/accented referent and the contextual alternative. Our findings highlight the importance of information structure for discourse management and suggest that speakers take activated alternatives to be relevant for an unfolding discourse. KW - information structure KW - linguistics focus KW - pitch accents KW - focus KW - alternatives KW - discourse expectations Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1163/18773109-01401003 SN - 1877-3095 SN - 1877-3109 VL - 14 IS - 1 SP - 77 EP - 94 PB - Brill CY - Leiden ER - TY - THES A1 - Atasoy, Atilla T1 - Production, perception, and processing of focus in Turkish N2 - The main goal of this dissertation is to experimentally investigate how focus is realised, perceived, and processed by native Turkish speakers, independent of preconceived notions of positional restrictions. Crucially, there are various issues and scientific debates surrounding focus in the Turkish language in the existing literature (chapter 1). It is argued in this dissertation that two factors led to the stagnant literature on focus in Turkish: the lack of clearly defined, modern understandings of information structure and its fundamental notion of focus, and the ongoing and ill-defined debate surrounding the question of whether there is an immediately preverbal focus position in Turkish. These issues gave rise to specific research questions addressed across this dissertation. Specifically, we were interested in how the focus dimensions such as focus size (comparing narrow constituent and broad sentence focus), focus target (comparing narrow subject and narrow object focus), and focus type (comparing new-information and contrastive focus) affect Turkish focus realisation and, in turn, focus comprehension when speakers are provided syntactic freedom to position focus as they see fit. To provide data on these core goals, we presented three behavioural experiments based on a systematic framework of information structure and its notions (chapter 2): (i) a production task with trigger wh-questions and contextual animations manipulated to elicit the focus dimensions of interest (chapter 3), (ii) a timed acceptability judgment task in listening to the recorded answers in our production task (chapter 4), and (iii) a self-paced reading task to gather on-line processing data (chapter 5). Based on the results of the conducted experiments, multiple conclusions are made in this dissertation (chapter 6). Firstly, this dissertation demonstrated empirically that there is no focus position in Turkish, neither in the sense of a strict focus position language nor as a focally loaded position facilitating focus perception and/or processing. While focus is, in fact, syntactically variable in the Turkish preverbal area, this is a consequence of movement triggered by other IS aspects like topicalisation and backgrounding, and the observational markedness of narrow subject focus compared to narrow object focus. As for focus type in Turkish, this dimension is not associated with word order in production, perception, or processing. Significant acoustic correlates of focus size (broad sentence focus vs narrow constituent focus) and focus target (narrow subject focus vs narrow object focus) were observed in fundamental frequency and intensity, representing focal boost, (postfocal) deaccentuation, and the presence or absence of a phrase-final rise in the prenucleus, while the perceivability of these effects remains to be investigated. In contrast, no acoustic correlates of focus type in simple, three-word transitive structures were observed, with focus types being interchangeable in mismatched question-answer pairs. Overall, the findings of this dissertation highlight the need for experimental investigations regarding focus in Turkish, as theoretical predictions do not necessarily align with experimental data. As such, the fallacy of implying causation from correlation should be strictly kept in mind, especially when constructions coincide with canonical structures, such as the immediately preverbal position in narrow object foci. Finally, numerous open questions remain to be explored, especially as focus and word order in Turkish are multifaceted. As shown, givenness is a confounding factor when investigating focus types, while thematic role assignment potentially confounds word order preferences. Further research based on established, modern information structure frameworks is needed, with chapter 5 concluding with specific recommendations for such future research. N2 - Das Hauptziel dieser Dissertation war die experimentelle Untersuchung, wie Muttersprachler des Türkischen Fokus realisieren, wahrnehmen und sprachlich verarbeiten, unabhängig von vorgefassten Meinungen betreffend Positionsbeschränkungen. Entscheidend ist, dass es in der vorhandenen Literatur verschiedene Probleme und wissenschaftliche Debatten zum Thema Fokus in der türkischen Sprache gibt (Kapitel 1). In dieser Dissertation wird argumentiert, dass zwei Faktoren zu der stagnierenden Forschung zum Thema Fokus im Türkischen beitrugen: Das Fehlen eines klar definierten modernen Verständnisses der Informationsstruktur und ihres grundlegenden Begriffs von Fokus und die anhaltende und unklare Debatte um die Frage, ob es im Türkischen eine unmittelbar präverbale Fokusposition gibt. Diese Probleme führten zu den jeweiligen Forschungsfragen, die in dieser Dissertation behandelt wurden. Ausdrücklich lag das Interesse darauf, wie die Fokusdimensionen Fokusgröße, der Vergleich von schmalem Fokus (narrow focus) auf der Konstituente und breitem, projiziertem Fokus (broad focus) auf dem Satz, Fokusziel, der Vergleich von schmalem Subjektfokus und Objektfokus, und Fokustyp, der Vergleich von Fokus auf neuer Information (new-inforamtion focus) und Kontrastfokus, die Fokusrealisierung und -wahrnehmung im Türkischen beeinflussen, wenn den Sprechern syntaktische Freiheit gegeben wird Fokus nach Belieben im Satz zu positionieren. Basierend auf einen systematischen theoretischen Rahmen der Informationsstruktur und ihrer Begriffe (Kapitel 2), wurden drei Verhaltensexperimente in dieser Dissertation präsentiert, um Daten zu diesen Kernzielen vorzulegen: (i) ein Produktionsexperiment mit Fragen und kontextbezogenen Animationen als Trigger manipuliert, um die obengenannten Fokusdimensionen zu untersuchen, (ii) ein zeitlich gemessenes Akzeptanzexperiment (timed acceptability judgment task) beim Anhören der Antworten aufgezeichnet in unserem Produktionsexperiment und (iii) ein selbstbestimmtes Leseexperiment (self-paced reading task) zur Untersuchung der sprachlichen Verarbeitung (on-line language processing). Auf der Grundlage der Ergebnisse der durchgeführten Experimente werden in dieser Dissertation mehrere Schlussfolgerungen gezogen (Kapitel 6). Diese Dissertation hat zum einen empirisch nachgewiesen, dass es im Türkischen keine Fokusposition gibt, weder im Sinne einer strikten Fokusposition noch als fokal geladene Position, die die Fokuswahrnehmung und/oder -verarbeitung erleichtert. Während Fokus im türkischen präverbalen Bereich tatsächlich syntaktisch variabel ist, ist dies eine Folge syntaktischer Strategien anderer IS-Aspekte, wie etwa Topikalisierung und Hintergrundbildung (backgrounding), wie auch die additive Kennzeichnung schmaler Subjektfokusse im Vergleich zum Objektfokus. Was Fokustyp im Türkischen betrifft, ist diese Fokusdimension nicht mit Wortstellung in Produktion, Wahrnehmung oder Verarbeitung assoziiert. Signifikante akustische Korrelate der Fokusgröße (breiter Satzfokus vs. schmalen Konstituentenfokus) und Fokusziel (schmaler Subjektfokus vs. schmalen Objektfokus) in Grundfrequenz und Intensität in Form von Fokusverstärkung (focal boost), (postfokaler) Deakzentuierung und dem Vorhandensein oder Fehlen eines phrasenfinalen Anstiegs im Pränukleus wurden beobachtet, während die Wahrnehmbarkeit dieser Effekte noch zu untersuchen ist. Im Gegensatz dazu wurden keine akustischen Korrelate für Fokustyp in simplen transitiven Dreiwortstrukturen beobachtet, wobei Fokustypen in nicht übereinstimmenden Frage-Antwort-Paaren austauschbar waren. Insgesamt unterstreichen die oben skizzierten Ergebnisse dieser Dissertation die Notwendigkeit experimenteller Untersuchungen zu Fokus im Türkischen, da theoretische Vorhersagen nicht immer mit experimentellen Daten übereinstimmen. Der Trugschluss, dass Korrelation Kausalität impliziert, sollte strikt im Auge behalten werden, insbesondere wenn Konstruktionen mit kanonischen Strukturen übereinstimmen, wie etwa die unmittelbar präverbale Position in schmalen Objektfokussen. Schließlich sind noch zahlreiche offene Fragen zu klären, zumal Fokus und Wortstellung im Türkischen vielfältig sind. Wie in dieser Dissertation gezeigt wurde, ist Gegebenheit ein Störfaktor in der Untersuchung von Fokustypen. Ebenfalls ist zu vermuten, dass thematische Rollenzuweisung im Türkischen Präferenzen in Wortstellung hervorrufen können, die als Fokuseffekte fehlinterpretiert werden könnten. Weitere Forschung auf der Grundlage etablierter theoretischer Informationsstrukturrahmen ist erforderlich. Kapitel 5 schließt mit konkreten Empfehlungen für solche zukünftigen Untersuchungen ab. T2 - Produktion, Wahrnehmung und Verarbeitung von Fokus im Türkischen KW - focus KW - information structure KW - Turkish KW - focus realisation KW - Türkisch KW - Fokus KW - Fokusrealisierung KW - Informationsstruktur Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-548156 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Chen, Aoju A1 - Höhle, Barbara T1 - Four- to five-year-old' use of word order and prosody in focus marking in Dutch JF - Linguistics Vanguard N2 - This study investigated Dutch-speaking four- to five-year-olds’ use of word order and prosody in distinguishing focus types (broad focus, narrow focus, and contrastive narrow focus) via an interactive answer-reconstruction game. We have found an overall preference for the unmarked word order SVO and no evidence for the use of OVS to distinguish focus types. But the children used pitch and duration in the subject-nouns to distinguish focus types in SVO sentences. These findings show that Dutch-speaking four- to five-year-olds differ from their German- and Finnish-speaking peers, who show evidence of varying choice of word order to mark specific focus types, and use prosody to distinguish focus types in subject and object nouns in both SVO and OVS sentences. These comparisons suggest that typological differences in the relative importance between word order and prosody can lead to differences in children’s use of word order and prosody in unmarked and marked word orders. A more equal role of word order and prosody in the ambient language can stimulate more extensive use of prosody in the marked word order, whereas a more limited role of word order can restrict the use of prosody in the unmarked word order. KW - information structure KW - Dutch-speaking children KW - word order KW - prosody KW - focus Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1515/lingvan-2016-0101 SN - 2199-174X VL - 4 PB - De Gruyter CY - Berlin ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Grubic, Mira A1 - Renans, Agata A1 - Duah, Reginald Akuoko T1 - Focus, exhaustivity and existence in Akan, Ga and Ngamo JF - Linguistics : an interdisciplinary journal of the language sciences N2 - This paper discusses the relation between focus marking and focus interpretation in Akan (Kwa), Ga (Kwa), and Ngamo (West Chadic). In all three languages, there is a special morphosyntactically marked focus/background construction, as well as morphosyntactically unmarked focus. We present data stemming from original fieldwork investigatingwhether marked focus/background constructions in these three languages also have additional interpretative effects apart from standard focus interpretation. Crosslinguistically, different additional inferences have been found for marked focus constructions, e.g. contrast (e.g. Vallduvi, Enric & Maria Vilkuna. 1997. On rheme and kontrast. In Peter Culicover & Louise McNally (eds.), The limits of syntax (Syntax and semantics 29), 79-108. New York: Academic Press; Hartmann, Katharina & Malte Zimmermann. 2007b. In place -Out of place: Focus in Hausa. In Kerstin Schwabe & Susanne Winkler (eds.), On information structure, meaning and form, 365-403. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.; Destruel, Emilie & Leah Velleman. 2014. Refining contrast: Empirical evidence from the English it-cleft. In Christopher Pinon (ed.), Empirical issues in syntax and semantics 10, 197-214. Paris: Colloque de syntaxe et semantique a Paris (CSSP). http://www.cssp.cnrs.fr/eiss10/), exhaustivity (e.g. E. Kiss, Katalin. 1998. Identificational focus versus information focus. Language 74(2). 245-273.; Hartmann, Katharina & Malte Zimmermann. 2007a. Exhaustivity marking in Hausa: A re-evaluation of the particle nee/cee. In Enoch O. Aboh, Katharina Hartmann & Malte Zimmermann (eds.), Focus strategies in African languages: The interaction of focus and grammar in Niger-Congo and AfroAsiatic (Trends in Linguistics 191), 241-263. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.), and existence (e.g. Rooth, Mats. 1999. Association with focus or association with presupposition? In Peter Bosch & Rob van der Sandt (eds.), Focus: Linguistic, cognitive, and computational perspectives, 232-244. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.; von Fintel, Kai & Lisa Matthewson. 2008. Universals in semantics. The Linguistic Review 25(1-2). 139-201). This paper investigates these three inferences. In Akan and Ga, the marked focus constructions are found to be contrastive, while in Ngamo, no effect of contrast was found. We also show that marked focus constructions in Ga and Akan trigger exhaustivity and existence presuppositions, while the marked construction in Ngamo merely gives rise to an exhaustive conversational implicature and does not trigger an existence presupposition. Instead, the marked construction in Ngamo merely indicates salience of the backgrounded part via a morphological background marker related to the definite determiner (Schuh, Russell G. 2005. Yobe state, Nigeria as a linguistic area. Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 31(2). 77-94; Guldemann, Tom. 2016. Maximal backgrounding = focus without (necessary) focus encoding. Studies in Language 40(3). 551590). The paper thus contributes to the understanding of the semantics of marked focus constructions across languages and points to the crosslinguistic variation in expressing and interpreting marked focus/background constructions. KW - focus KW - cleft KW - contrast KW - exhaustivity KW - existence presupposition KW - salience Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2018-0035 SN - 0024-3949 SN - 1613-396X VL - 57 IS - 1 SP - 221 EP - 268 PB - De Gruyter Mouton CY - Berlin ER - TY - THES A1 - Amaechi, Mary Chimaobi T1 - A'-movement dependencies and their reflexes in Igbo N2 - In this thesis, I examine different A-bar movement dependencies in Igbo, a Benue-Congo language spoken in southern Nigeria. Movement dependencies are found in constructions where an element is moved to the left edge of the clause to express information-structural categories such as in questions, relativization and focus. I show that these constructions in Igbo are very uniform from a syntactic point of view. The constructions are built on two basic fronting operations: relativization and focus movement, and are biclausal. I further investigate several morphophonological effects that are found in these A-bar constructions. I propose that these effects are reflexes of movement that are triggered when an element is moved overtly in relativization or focus. This proposal helps to explain the tone patterns that have previously been assumed to be a property of relative clauses. The thesis adds to the growing body of tonal reflexes of A-bar movement reported for a few African languages. The thesis also provides an insight into the complementizer domain (C-domain) of Igbo. N2 - In dieser Dissertation untersuche ich verschiedene syntaktische A-quer-Bewegungsabhängigkeiten in Igbo, einer Benue-Kongo-Sprache, die im Süden Nigerias gesprochen wird. Bewegungsabhängigkeiten finden sich in Konstruktionen, in denen ein Element an den linken Satzrand bewegt wird, um informationsstrukturelle Kategorien auszudrücken, etwa in Fragen, Relativsatzbildung und Fokussierung. Ich zeige, dass diese Konstruktionen in Igbo in Hinblick auf die Syntax sehr einheitlich sind. Die Konstruktionen bauen auf zwei grundlegenden Voranstellungsoperationen auf – Relativierung und Fokusbewegung – und sind biklausal. Außerdem untersuche ich verschiedene morphophonologische Effekte, die in diesen A-quer-Konstruktionen vorkommen. Ich schlage vor, dass die Effekte Ausdruck von Bewegung sind und dadurch ausgelöst werden, dass ein Element zum Zweck der Relativsatzbildung oder Fokussierung bewegt wird. Die Dissertation liefert einen weiteren Beleg für tonale Effekte von A-quer-Bewegung, die bereits für einige afrikanische Sprachen berichtet wurden. Die Arbeit gibt auch Aufschluss über die Komplementierer-Domäne (C-domain) in Igbo. T2 - A'-Bewegungsabhängigkeiten und ihre Reflexe im Igbo KW - A-bar movement KW - clefts KW - focus KW - relativization KW - Igbo KW - A-quer-Bewegung KW - Spaltsätze KW - Fokus KW - Relativsätze KW - Igbo Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-471524 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Patterson, Clare A1 - Esaulova, Yulia A1 - Felser, Claudia T1 - The impact of focus on pronoun resolution in native and non-native sentence comprehension JF - Second language research KW - clefts KW - discourse-level cues KW - focus KW - focus-sensitive particles KW - information structure KW - non-native speakers KW - pronoun resolution Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/0267658317697786 SN - 0267-6583 SN - 1477-0326 VL - 33 SP - 403 EP - 429 PB - Sage Publ. CY - London ER -