Cross-Linguistic Analyses

Author	Title	Year	Journal/Proceedings	Reftype	DOI/URL
Mayol, L. and Castroviejo, E.	(Non)Integrated Evaluative Adverbs in Questions: A Cross-Romance Study [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2013	Language Vol. 89(2), pp. 195-230	article	URL
Abstract: The goal of this article is to analyze the semantic contribution of evaluative adverbs (EAs) such as unfortunately in several languages of the Romance family, namely French, Catalan, and Spanish. Following Bonami and Godard (2008), we propose to analyze EAs as items that convey projective meaning in order to explain their peculiar semantic behavior (they cannot be directly denied, do not change the truth conditions of the proposition they evaluate, and are not factive) and their unacceptability in negative assertions. Unlike what has been claimed for many other languages, French allows EAs in questions, and we show that Catalan and Spanish do too, as long as some conditions are met. We propose an account that derives their interpretation in both assertions and questions: integrated French EAs take the proposition to their right, and if they appear in a WH-question, their interpretation is similar to that of unconditionals. In contrast, nonintegrated EAs in Catalan and Spanish have scope over a set of propositions, and are acceptable in questions only if the speaker is biased toward one of the propositions in the set denoted by the question. The acceptability of EAs in such questions, rejected by previous literature, is confirmed by an experimental study.
BibTeX: @article{10.2307/24671860, author = {Laia Mayol and Elena Castroviejo}, title = {(Non)Integrated Evaluative Adverbs in Questions: A Cross-Romance Study}, journal = {Language}, publisher = {Linguistic Society of America}, year = {2013}, volume = {89}, number = {2}, pages = {195--230}, url = {http://www.jstor.org/stable/24671860} }
Liu, M.	Processing Non-at-Issue Meanings of Conditional Connectives: The wenn/falls Contrast in German [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2021	Frontiers in Psychology Vol. 12, pp. 2958	article	DOI URL
Abstract: Logical connectives in natural language pose challenges to truth-conditional semantics due to pragmatics and gradience in their meaning. This paper reports on a case study of the conditional connectives (CCs) wenn/falls ‘if/when, if/in case’ in German. Using distributional evidence, I argue that wenn and falls differ in lexical pragmatics: They express different degrees of speaker commitment (i.e., credence) toward the modified antecedent proposition at the non-at-issue dimension. This contrast can be modeled using the speaker commitment scale (Giannakidou and Mari, 2016), i.e., _{More committed}_{Less committed}. Four experiments are reported which tested the wenn/falls contrast, as well as the summary of an additional one from Liu (2019). Experiment 1 tested the naturalness of sentences containing the CCs (wenn or falls) and conditional antecedents with varying degrees of likelihood (very likely/likely/unlikely). The starting prediction was that falls might be degraded in combination with very likely and likely events in comparison to the other conditions, which was not borne out. Experiment 2 used the forced lexical choice paradigm, testing the choice between wenn and falls in the doxastic agent’s conditional thought, depending on their belief or disbelief in the antecedent. The finding was that subjects chose falls significantly more often than wenn in the disbelief-context, and vice versa in the belief-context. Experiment 3 tested the naturalness of sentences with CCs and an additional relative clause conveying the speaker’s belief or disbelief in the antecedent. An interaction was found: While in the belief-context, wenn was rated more natural than falls, the reverse pattern was found in the disbelief-context. While the results are mixed, the combination of the findings in Experiment 2, Experiment 3 and that of Experiment 4a from Liu (2019) that falls led to lower speaker commitment ratings than wenn, provide evidence for the CC scale. Experiment 4b tested the interaction between two speaker commitment scales, namely, one of connectives (including weil ‘because’ and wenn/falls) and the other of adverbs (factive vs. non-factive, Liu, 2012). While factive and non-factive adverbs were rated equally natural for the factive causal connective, non-factive adverbs were preferred over factive ones by both CCs, with no difference between wenn and falls. This is discussed together with the result in Liu (2019), where the wenn/falls difference occurred in the absence of negative polarity items (NPIs), but disappeared in the presence of NPIs. This raises further questions on how different speaker commitment scales interact and why.
BibTeX: @article{10.3389/fpsyg.2021.629177, author = {Liu, Mingya}, title = {Processing Non-at-Issue Meanings of Conditional Connectives: The wenn/falls Contrast in German}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, year = {2021}, volume = {12}, pages = {2958}, url = {https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.629177}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.629177} }
AnderBois, S.	Issues and Alternatives [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2011	School: University of California, Santa Cruz	phdthesis	URL
Abstract: The central topic this dissertation is the semantic relationship between disjunctions, indefinites, and other instances of existential quantification on the one hand and questions on the other. I argue that the former have more in common with the latter than is generally acknowledged and, in particular, that their compositional semantics includes not only truth-conditional information, but also an issue-raising or inquisitive capacity. For example, a simple assertion like “Someone left.” not only proposes to rule out the possibility that no one left, it also presents the issue of ‘Who left?’ as a possible direction for future discussion. This dissertation presents several empirical arguments for this inquisitive capacity and for particular interactions with other elements in the sentence. The most direct argument comes from novel fieldwork on wh- and alternative questions in Yucatec Maya (an indigenous language of Mexico), which consist of focused disjunctions and focused indefinite wh-words respectively. I argue that both patterns can be accounted for under a semantics where disjunctions and indefinite wh-words — across all their uses — make a contribution that is both inquisitive and potentially informative. The (contextually restricted) presupposition of focus is responsible for isolating this inquisitive capacity in questions, thus distinguishing them from assertions. This Yucatec Maya-based semantics for disjunctions and indefinites sheds light on several puzzles regarding these elements more generally, and in particular, in English. The first of these is the ellipsis process known as Sluicing, which I analyze as the anaphoric retrieval of an issue introduced by prior inquisitive elements. Second, I provide an analysis of subtle differences between positive, negative, and alternative polar questions with or not, which makes use of a more structured ‘two-tiered’ semantics for issues. Finally, I provide a semantic/pragmatic account of polar questions with preposed negation in which (double) negation plays the pivotal semantic role, suppressing inquisitive content within the question itself, thereby providing added emphasis on the truth-conditional information of the proposition itself (i.e. Verum Focus).
BibTeX: @phdthesis{AnderBois2011, author = {Scott AnderBois}, title = {Issues and Alternatives}, school = {University of California, Santa Cruz}, year = {2011}, url = {https://research.clps.brown.edu/anderbois/PDFs/AnderBois_Diss_Web.pdf} }
AnderBois, S. and Henderson, R.	Linguistically Establishing Discourse Context: Two Case Studies from Mayan Languages [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2015	Methodologies in Semantic Fieldwork	inproceedings	DOI
Abstract: This chapter tackles the question of whether the language under investigation or a language of wider communication should be used in presenting contexts for judgment tasks. Based on two case studies from fieldwork on Mayan languages, the primary conclusion is that neither choice is inherently better. Instead, grammatical features of the two languages and the constructions under investigation must guide the selection of a language for establishing the discourse context. Because the relevant grammatical features are often interesting in their own right and crucial for replication, the chapter concludes with a prescriptive proposal: researchers should both disclose the language used for setting up judgment contexts and explain why that language was chosen.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{AnderBois2015a, author = {Scott AnderBois and Robert Henderson}, title = {Linguistically Establishing Discourse Context: Two Case Studies from Mayan Languages}, booktitle = {Methodologies in Semantic Fieldwork}, year = {2015}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190212339.003.0009} }
AnderBois, S.	Semantics and pragmatics of (not-)at-issueness in Yucatec Maya attitude reports [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2016	Semantics and Pragmatics Vol. 9(19), pp. 1-55	article	DOI
Abstract: English attitude reports like “x thinks that p” can be used in two different types of contexts: ones where the Question Under Discussion (QUD) concerns whether or not p is true and ones where the QUD concerns x’s mental state itself. Yucatec Maya (YM) has two different morphosyntactic forms differing superficially in the presence or absence of the morpheme -e’, which serves as a topic marker elsewhere in the language. This paper argues that despite these two forms being truth-conditionally equivalent, their use is consistently correlated with which sort of QUD is present in the context. To account for these facts, I develop a particular conception of the relationships between QUDs, relevance, at-issueness, and assertion, building on the account of Simons et al. (2011). Given this theory, I propose a semantics where -e’ encodes that the attitudinal predication is parenthetical — that is, not part of the at-issue proposal (similar to English sentences like “It’s raining, I think”) and instead contributes to what I dub the basis of the proposal. I show that this semantics, together with plausible general pragmatic reasoning, provides an account of the meaning of the two attitude constructions in YM and their distribution in discourse.
BibTeX: @article{AnderBois2016, author = {AnderBois, Scott}, title = {Semantics and pragmatics of (not-)at-issueness in Yucatec Maya attitude reports}, journal = {Semantics and Pragmatics}, year = {2016}, volume = {9}, number = {19}, pages = {1--55}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.3765/sp.9.19} }
AnderBois, S.	A QUD-Based Account of the Discourse Particle naman in Tagalog [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2016	The Proceedings of AFLA 23	inproceedings	URL
Abstract: Although the Tagalog second position particle naman is often regarded as marking contrast, we show that it also has plainly non-contrastive uses including to convey obviousness. We develop a unified account of contrastive and non-contrastive uses of naman in a QUD-framework as marking the closure of the prior immediate QUD. While the focus here is on naman in declaratives, we briefly explore the prospects of extending the account to its use in imperatives and with predicate adjectives.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{AnderBois2016a, author = {Scott AnderBois}, title = {A QUD-Based Account of the Discourse Particle naman in Tagalog}, booktitle = {The Proceedings of AFLA 23}, year = {2016}, url = {https://research.clps.brown.edu/anderbois/PDFs/AFLA23_AnderBois.pdf} }
Bade, N., University, —., of Tübingen, Tiemann, S., University, —. and of Tübingen	Obligatory Triggers under Negation [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2016	Vol. 20Proceedings of Sinn Und Bedeutung, pp. 109-126	inproceedings	DOI
Abstract: In this paper, we present two experimental studies which test the different predictions of two theories for the obligatory occurrence of the presupposition triggers ”again” and ”too” (German ”auch” and ”wieder”) under negation. One theory assumes that ”again” and ”too” are inserted to avoid a mandatory exhaustivity implicature that contradicts the context. A second theory assumes that the insertion of ”again” and ”too” follows from a principle Maximize Presupposition (Heim 1991). We provide experimental evidence that shows that both triggers are not obligatory under negation. This supports an approach which works with obligatory exhaustivity implicatures and speaks against an analysis using Maximize Presupposition.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Bade2016, author = {Nadine Bade and — University and of Tübingen and Sonja Tiemann and — University and of Tübingen}, title = {Obligatory Triggers under Negation}, booktitle = {Proceedings of Sinn Und Bedeutung}, year = {2016}, volume = {20}, pages = {109-126}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.18148/sub/2016.v20i0.207} }
Bade, N. and Renans, A.	A cross-linguistic view on the obligatory insertion of additive particles — Maximize Presupposition vs. Obligatory Implicatures [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2021	Glossa: a journal of general linguistics Vol. 6(1), pp. 51	article	DOI
Abstract: Presupposition triggers, such as the additive particle too, the iterative particle again, and the definite determiner the, are obligatory if their presuppositions are satisfied in the context. This observation is accounted for in the literature by two theories: one based on Maximize Presupposition (e.g., Heim 1991; Percus 2006; Chemla 2008), the other based on Obligatory Implicatures (Bade 2016). In this paper, we report on two experiments in two typologically unrelated languages, Ga (Kwa) and German, which were designed to test the predictions of these two approaches for the insertion of additive particles. The results show that in both languages the insertion of additives is regulated by Obligatory Implicatures, posing challenges for Maximize Presupposition. Following Bade (2016), we assume a division of labor between the two theories in explaining obligatory presupposition effects.
BibTeX: @article{Bade2021, author = {Nadine Bade and Agata Renans}, title = {A cross-linguistic view on the obligatory insertion of additive particles — Maximize Presupposition vs. Obligatory Implicatures}, journal = {Glossa: a journal of general linguistics}, year = {2021}, volume = {6}, number = {1}, pages = {51}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.727} }
Balogh, K.	Additive particle uses in Hungarian [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2021	Studies in Language Vol. 45(2), pp. 428-469	article	DOI
Abstract: In this paper, we investigate empirical data that raise challenging issues with respect to focus sensitivity of the Hungarian additive particle is ‘also, too’. In Hungarian, the additive particle is attached to a constituent, and the is-phrase cannot occupy the structural focus position. This raises the issue how to capture the focus sensitivity of is. We propose a primarily pragmatic, context-based analysis of the Hungarian additive particle, where the particle associates with the pragmatic focus (Lambrecht 1994) determined on basis of the immediate question under discussion (Roberts 2012). Important evidence for this claim is that the Hungarian additive particle can take different semantic associates, corresponding to the pragmatic focus of the sentence. After discussing the Hungarian data, we will present the analysis in the framework of Role and Reference Grammar (Van Valin & LaPolla 1997; Van Valin 2005). To capture Hungarian and English data in a uniform way, important extensions of the framework will be proposed.
BibTeX: @article{Balogh2021, author = {Kata Balogh}, title = {Additive particle uses in Hungarian}, journal = {Studies in Language}, year = {2021}, volume = {45}, number = {2}, pages = {428-469}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.19034.bal} }
Barlew, J.	Salience and uniqueness and the definite determiner -tè in Bulu [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2014	Proceedings of SALT 24	inproceedings	DOI
Abstract: Analyses of the meanings of definite determiners both in English (Kadmon 1990; Roberts 2003; Elbourne 2013, among others) and crosslinguistically (Schwarz 2013; Arkoh & Matthewson 2013) have been framed in terms of two dimensions of meaning: familiarity and uniqueness. This paper presents an analysis of the Bulu (Bantu, Cameroon) definite determiner -tè. I argue that the antecedent of an NP with -tè is required to be salient and unique. Thus, salience is an additional dimension along which there is crosslinguistic variation in the meanings of definite determiners.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Barlew2014, author = {Jefferson Barlew}, title = {Salience and uniqueness and the definite determiner -tè in Bulu}, booktitle = {Proceedings of SALT 24}, year = {2014}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.3765/salt.v24i0.2992} }
Beaver, D. and Clark, B.	Sense and Sensitivity: How focus determines meaning [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2008		book
Abstract: Sense and Sensitivity advances a novel research proposal in the nascent field of formal pragmatics, exploring in detail the semantics and pragmatics of focus in natural language discourse. The authors develop a new account of focus sensitivity, and show that what has hitherto been regarded as a uniform phenomenon in fact results from three different mechanisms. The book makes a major contribution to ongoing research in the area of focus sensitivity – a field exploring interactions between sound and meaning, specifically the dependency some words have on the effects of focus, such as "she only LIKES me" (i.e. nothing deeper) compared to "she only likes ME" (i.e. nobody else). Discusses the features of the QFC theory (Quasi association, Free association, and Conventional association), a new account of focus implying a tripartite typology of focus-sensitive expressions. Presents novel cross-linguistic data on focus and focus sensitivity that will be relevant across a range of linguistic sub-fields: semantics and pragmatics, syntax, and intonational phonology. Concludes with a case study of exclusives (like “only”), arguing that the entire existing literature has missed crucial generalizations, and for the first time explaining the focus sensitivity of these expressions in terms of their meaning and discourse function
BibTeX: @book{Beaver2008, author = {David Beaver and Brady Clark}, title = {Sense and Sensitivity: How focus determines meaning}, publisher = {Blackwell}, year = {2008} }
Beyssade, C., Hemforth, B., Marandin, J.-M. and Portes, C.	Prosodic Realizations of Information Focus in French [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2015	Vol. 46Studies in Theoretical Psycholinguistics, pp. 39-61	incollection	DOI
Abstract: In this chapter, we provide empirical evidence on the prosodic marking of information focus (IF) in French. We report results from an elicitation experiment and two perception experiments. Based on these experiments, we propose that phrases that resolve a question are set off by two types of intonational markers in French: they host the nuclear pitch accent (NPA) on their right edge and/or they are intonationally highlighted by an initial rise (IR). These intonational markers are very often realized conjointly but can also be applied separately thus leading to considerable variation in our elicitation data. We will propose that some of the variation can be explained by differences in the function of NPA and IR: NPA placement is sensitive to the informational/illocutionary partitioning of the content of utterances, while IRs are sensitive to different types of semantic or pragmatic salience. We also suggest that “question/answer” pairs provide a criterion to identify the IF only if the answer is congruent. Answers may, however, contribute to implicit questions resulting in different prosodic realizations.
BibTeX: @incollection{Beyssade2015, author = {Claire Beyssade and Barbara Hemforth and Jean-Marie Marandin and Cristel Portes}, title = {Prosodic Realizations of Information Focus in French}, booktitle = {Studies in Theoretical Psycholinguistics}, publisher = {Springer International Publishing}, year = {2015}, volume = {46}, pages = {39--61}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12961-7_3} }
Borthen, K. and Karagjosova, E.	Pronominal right-dislocation in Norwegian [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2021	Glossa: a journal of general linguistics	article	DOI
Abstract: The goal of the paper is to propose a holistic analysis of the discourse properties and the interpretational effects of pronominal right-dislocation in Norwegian. Previous research has suggested that this is a topic construction, and it has been shown that the right-dislocated pronoun may affect reference assignment, is sometimes used in cases of discourse breaks, is associated with contrastiveness, and may lead to interpretational effects such as “emphasis” and “mitigation”. Based on Norwegian authentic corpus material, Givón’s (1983a) notion of marked constructions, and Sperber and Wilson’s (1986/1995) relevance theory, we present a novel analysis that connects the various properties of the construction together. A central aspect of our analysis is the assumption that marked constructions increase the accessibility of contrastive interpretations, which in turn may trigger the derivation of certain types of implicatures. Since the analysis is mainly based on assumptions about human cognition, the study makes cross-linguistic predictions despite its focus on one language.
BibTeX: @article{Borthen2021, author = {Kaja Borthen and Elena Karagjosova}, title = {Pronominal right-dislocation in Norwegian}, journal = {Glossa: a journal of general linguistics}, year = {2021}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.1025} }
Botteri, D.	Ellipsis in Italian split questions [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2015	Research in Generative Grammar Vol. 37, pp. 35-54	article	URL
Abstract: The goal of this paper is to investigate the syntax of split questions in Italian. Split questions are interrogative structures formed by two parts: a wh-part which corresponds to a standard wh-question and a tag which constitutes a possible answer for that wh-question. Building on previous work by Arregi (2010) I propose that these structures are actually formed by two distinct interrogatives, one of which undergoes ellipsis. This proposal has implications which go beyond the domain of split questions. First, it contributes to a better understanding of ellipsis phenomena. Second, it allows us to deepen our knowledge of the interrogative system in different varieties. Third, it enables us to reconsider some aspects of the interaction between interrogative structures and focus fronting.
BibTeX: @article{Botteri2015, author = {Botteri, Daniele}, title = {Ellipsis in Italian split questions}, journal = {Research in Generative Grammar}, publisher = {Venice: Center for Language Sciences}, year = {2015}, volume = {37}, pages = {35-54}, url = {http://hdl.handle.net/11707/5270} }
Büring, D.	The Meaning of Topic and Focus: The 59th Street Bridge accent [Abstract] [BibTeX]	1997		book
Abstract: 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.
BibTeX: @book{Buering1997, author = {Daniel Büring},, title = {The Meaning of Topic and Focus: The 59th Street Bridge accent}, publisher = {Routledge}, year = {1997} }
Büring, D.	Towards a typology of focus realization [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2009	Information Structure, pp. 177-205	incollection	DOI
Abstract: Chapter 8 ‘Towards a Typology of Focus Realization’ by Daniel Büring presents a first attempt to formulate a cross‐linguistic theory of focus realization, that is, of how different languages express focusing. By far not all languages mark focused constituents via pitch accent placement, the way Germanic languages do. Rather, focusing is variously reflected in prosodic phrasing, constituent ordering, via special focus morphemes, and perhaps in some cases, not at all. The chapter explores the hypothesis that there is still something systematic to be said about focus realization, that is, that there is a common analytical apparatus that can capture the cross‐linguistic variation, based on the Prominence Theory of Focus Realization.
BibTeX: @incollection{Buering2009, author = {Daniel Büring}, title = {Towards a typology of focus realization}, booktitle = {Information Structure}, publisher = {Oxford University Press}, year = {2009}, pages = {177-205}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199570959.003.0008} }
Buitrago, N.	Types Of Focus In Spanish: Exploring The Connection Between Function And Realization [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2013	School: Cornell University	mastersthesis	URL
Abstract: This thesis revisits the divide between information focus and contrastive focus in Spanish. This divide is said to manifest itself not only in meaning differences, but in surface structure as well, resulting in different syntactic and phonological realizations depending on the intended pragmatic function of a focused sentence. According to previous accounts, an utterance in which focus is expressed by dislocating the relevant element to the end of the sentence is assumed to signify information focus, while a strategy utilizing a specific prosody change on the focused element is said to express contrast. This work argues, in opposition to previous assumptions from the literature, that there is not a strict divide between the realization of one kind of focus or another, and in fact, that these preconceived meaning divides are not themselves straightforward to characterize. Further, this work argues for the possibility that the choice of focus construction is highly influenced by speakers' communicative intentions and constraints. The conclusions reached in this thesis are the product of a combination of empirical and theoretical work. Empirical evidence is drawn from two sources: 1) data from an original elicitation experiment involving native speakers of Spanish producing focused constructions under different pragmatic situations; and 2) findings from the literature on on-line sentence processing studying focused constructions specifically. The first source of data points at the conclusion that the strict information-as-syntactic vs. contrast-as-phonological divide has no base in Spanish. The second source argues for the need for a more functionally-informed approach to focus constructions. A formal analysis of the data using the QUD framework also demonstrates that different kinds of focus can be represented under a single unified semantic approach.
BibTeX: @mastersthesis{Buitrago2013, author = {Natalia Buitrago}, title = {Types Of Focus In Spanish: Exploring The Connection Between Function And Realization}, school = {Cornell University}, year = {2013}, url = {https://hdl.handle.net/1813/34118} }
Caponigro, I. and Davidson, K.	Ask, and tell as well: Question–Answer Clauses in American Sign Language [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2011	Natural Language Semantics Vol. 19(4), pp. 323-371	article	DOI
Abstract: A construction is found in American Sign Language that we call a Question–Answer Clause. It is made of two parts: the first part looks like an interrogative clause conveying a question, while the second part resembles a declarative clause answering that question. The very same signer has to sign both, the entire construction is interpreted as truth-conditionally equivalent to a declarative sentence, and it can be uttered only under certain discourse conditions. These and other properties of Question–Answer Clauses are discussed, and a detailed syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic account is provided. Question–Answer Clauses are argued to be copular clauses consisting of a silent copula of identity connecting an interrogative clause in the precopular position with a declarative clause in the postcopular position. Pragmatically, they instantiate a topic/comment structure, with the first part expressing a sub-question under discussion and the second part expressing the answer to that sub-question. Broader implications of the analysis are discussed for the Question Under Discussion theory of discourse structuring, for the analysis of pseudoclefts in spoken languages, and for recent proposals about the need for answerhood operators and exhaustivity operators in the grammar and the consequences for the syntax/semantics/pragmatics interface.
BibTeX: @article{Caponigro2011, author = {Ivano Caponigro and Kathryn Davidson}, title = {Ask, and tell as well: Question–Answer Clauses in American Sign Language}, journal = {Natural Language Semantics}, year = {2011}, volume = {19}, number = {4}, pages = {323--371}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s11050-011-9071-0} }
Castroviejo, E. and Mayol, L.	The connective doncs in dialogue and the QUD [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2011	Pre-proceedings of Constraints in Discourse 2011	inproceedings	URL
Abstract: This paper addresses the use in dialogue of the Catalan dis- course connective doncs (and Spanish pues). We propose that doncs has two different uses (it introduces a reply or it participates in the rhetoric relations of consequence/solutionhood), but we also show that they share a core property, namely the acknowledgment of a previous assertion that does not resolve the current Question Under Discussion.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Castroviejo2011, author = {Elena Castroviejo and Laia Mayol}, title = {The connective doncs in dialogue and the QUD}, booktitle = {Pre-proceedings of Constraints in Discourse 2011}, year = {2011}, url = {https://elena-castroviejo-miro.cat/Papers/proceedings-CID-Castroviejo-Mayol.pdf} }
Castroviejo, E. and Mayol, L.	Conclusion, Consequence, and solutionhood. The Semantics of Three Catalan Connectives [BibTeX]	2012	Vol. 16Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung	inproceedings
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Castroviejo2012, author = {Elena Castroviejo and Laia Mayol}, title = {Conclusion, Consequence, and solutionhood. The Semantics of Three Catalan Connectives}, booktitle = {Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung}, year = {2012}, volume = {16} }
Clopper, C.G. and Tonhauser, J.	The Prosody of Focus in Paraguayan Guaraní [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2013	International Journal of American Linguistics Vol. 79(2), pp. 219-251	article	DOI
Abstract: In many languages, prosodic prominence indicates which expressions of an utterance are focused. This study explores the prosody of focus in Paraguayan Guaraní (Tupí-Guaraní) through two production and two perception experiments conducted with native speakers of Guaraní in Paraguay. The results of the production experiments suggest that prosodic prominence is realized by stressed syllable duration, f0 slope, and pitch accent type. While the perception experiments provide evidence that Paraguayan Guaraní listeners attend to these properties in prosodic prominence perception, they also show that listeners are not at ceiling in identifying the prosodically most prominent expression from the acoustic signal alone. These results are consistent with recent findings about prosodic prominence perception in other languages and provide empirical support from an American indigenous language for the hypothesis that non-acoustic factors, such as word frequency and information status, also play a role in prominence perception.
BibTeX: @article{Clopper2013, author = {Cynthia G. Clopper and Judith Tonhauser}, title = {The Prosody of Focus in Paraguayan Guaraní}, journal = {International Journal of American Linguistics}, year = {2013}, volume = {79}, number = {2}, pages = {219--251}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1086/669629} }
Constant, N.	Contrastive Topic: Meanings and Realizations [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2014	School: University of Massachusets, Amherst	phdthesis	DOI
Abstract: This dissertation develops a theory of contrastive topics (CTs)—what they mean, and how they are realized. I give a compositional semantics for CT constructions, built on the idea that CT marks anaphora to a complex question in the discourse. The account allows us to maintain an inclusive view of what counts as a contrastive topic, making reasonable predictions about sentences with CT phrases of difference types, in various combinations, and across various speech acts. Empirically, the dissertation focuses on contrastive topic marking in English and Mandarin Chinese. In English, CT phrases are typically realized with a “rising” prosody. I offer an explicit model that predicts the intonational features of English sentences containing contrastive topics. In Mandarin, sentences with CTs often exhibit the discourse particle -ne. I provide a detailed description of the particle’s distribution, and offer the first sustained argument that -ne is a CT marker.
BibTeX: @phdthesis{Constant2014, author = {Noah Constant}, title = {Contrastive Topic: Meanings and Realizations}, school = {University of Massachusets, Amherst}, year = {2014}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.7275/5694973.0} }
Crane, T.M.	Resultatives, progressives, statives, and relevance: The temporal pragmatics of the -ite suffix in Totela [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2013	Lingua Vol. 133, pp. 164-188	article	DOI
Abstract: This article presents the verbal suffix -ite in Totela (Bantu, Namibia and Zambia), which has variable temporal interpretations based both on lexical aspect (situation type) and on discourse context. The same -ite-marked predicate may be interpreted as referencing a situation that is past (resultative-like readings) or present (progressive-like readings) with respect to utterance time. The suffix is analyzed as having the aspectual function of a stativizer, asserting a relevant property of the utterance's subject. Temporal interpretations with respect to utterance time (or other perspective time) are derived from principles of relevance: the state described by an -ite-marked predicate is interpreted so that it answer the current question under discussion in discourse. The -ite suffix, most likely related to a historical resultative, still specifies a result state, but the temporal specifications of that result state are weakened and must be inferred through context. Cross-linguistic comparison of -ite with other markers that have both perfect/resultative and progressive readings suggests that the pragmatic notion of relevance and not only commonalities in temporal semantics (e.g. focus on post-state; stativizing functions) may be a key factor in the perfect/resultative/progressive connection.
BibTeX: @article{Crane2013, author = {Thera Marie Crane}, title = {Resultatives, progressives, statives, and relevance: The temporal pragmatics of the -ite suffix in Totela}, journal = {Lingua}, publisher = {Elsevier}, year = {2013}, volume = {133}, pages = {164--188}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2013.04.006} }
Davis, C.	Constraining Interpretation: Sentence Final Particles in Japanese [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2011	School: UMass Amherst	phdthesis	URL
Abstract: This dissertation is concerned with how pragmatic particles interact with sentential force and with general pragmatic constraints to derive optimal dynamic interpretations. The primary empirical focus of the dissertation is the Japanese sentence final particle yo and its intonational associates. These right-peripheral elements are argued to interact semantically with sentential force in specifying the set of contextual transitions compatible with an utterance. In this way, they semantically constrain the pragmatic interpretation of the utterances in which they occur. These conventional constraints on interpretation are wedded with general pragmatic constraints which provide a further filter on the road to optimal interpretation.
BibTeX: @phdthesis{Davis2011, author = {Christopher Davis}, title = {Constraining Interpretation: Sentence Final Particles in Japanese}, school = {UMass Amherst}, year = {2011}, url = {https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/constraining-interpretation-sentence-final/docview/883077085/se-2?accountid=9783} }
De Kuthy, K., Reiter, N. and Riester, A.	QUD-based annotation of discourse structure and information structure: Tool and evaluation [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2018	Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 2018)	inproceedings	URL
Abstract: We discuss and evaluate a new annotation scheme and discourse-analytic method, the QUD-tree framework. We present an annotation study, in which the framework, based on the concept of Questions under Discussion, is applied to English and German interview data, using TreeAnno, an annotation tool specially developed for this new kind of discourse annotation. The results of an inter-annotator agreement study show that the new annotation method allows for reasonable agreement with regard to discourse structure and good agreement with regard to the annotation of information structure, which covers focus, background, contrastive topic and non-at-issue material.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{DeKuthy2018, author = {De Kuthy, Kordula and Reiter, Nils and Riester, Arndt}, title = {QUD-based annotation of discourse structure and information structure: Tool and evaluation}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 2018)}, year = {2018}, url = {https://aclanthology.org/L18-1304.pdf} }
De Kuthy, K., Brunetti, L. and Berardi, M.	Annotating Information Structure in Italian: Characteristics and Cross-Linguistic Applicability of a QUD-Based Approach [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2019	Proceedings of the 13th Linguistic Annotation Workshop, pp. 113-123	inproceedings	DOI URL
Abstract: We present a discourse annotation study, in which an annotation method based on Questions under Discussion (QuD) is applied to Italian data. The results of our inter-annotator agreement analysis show that the QUD-based approach, originally spelled out for English and German, can successfully be transferred cross-linguistically, supporting good agreement for the annotation of central information structure notions such as focus and non-at-issueness. Our annotation and interannotator agreement study on Italian authentic data confirms the cross-linguistic applicability of the QuD-based approach.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{DeKuthy2019, author = {De Kuthy, Kordula and Brunetti, Lisa and Berardi, Marta}, title = {Annotating Information Structure in Italian: Characteristics and Cross-Linguistic Applicability of a QUD-Based Approach}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 13th Linguistic Annotation Workshop}, publisher = {Association for Computational Linguistics}, year = {2019}, pages = {113--123}, url = {https://aclanthology.org/W19-4014}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/W19-4014} }
Destruel, E.	The French c’est-cleft: An empirical study on its meaning and use [BibTeX]	2012	Empirical issues in syntax and semantics Vol. 9, pp. 95-112	article	URL
BibTeX: @article{Destruel2012, author = {Destruel, Emilie}, title = {The French c’est-cleft: An empirical study on its meaning and use}, journal = {Empirical issues in syntax and semantics}, year = {2012}, volume = {9}, pages = {95--112}, url = {https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/31030427/eiss9-destruel_V3.pdf?1364215828=&response-content-disposition=inline; filename=The_meaning_and_use_of_the_French_cest_c.pdf&Expires=1628204795&Signature=IMABLBpyn8A4gc0X-Oqz1pgsJzNRLkfJy5eDwvMWBVDJzfXLYvK1dVKRRj59u kvfvCQXnnTt8GTK59wFXvcMp8W09pecCSaASODyjn2RC21vURZkcAFY-5N6HhjcOVnLbfSbMQRRi-6HlOG68LWXHkPhtsj44StVObKx0bJEYEfn0VOy4WjuY0qQqoSLVuM3bJa8S4lJjN8FtfnwxAFEgoP7tXAiBG25TL4-KJ21eG1FKJWBmNNMpwa5NYD8S nndy3rAObxWPmEN TU9m5ya8-FZ8OEs2dydXRmtBD30WfV1Dm408d3yvfOIJF-77wftDwJaLyJoqYoJG3hCLuaw__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA} }
De Veaugh-Geiss, J.P., Tönnis, S., Onea, E. and Zimmermann, M.	That’s not quite it: An experimental investigation of (non-) exhaustivity in clefts [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2018	Semantics and Pragmatics Vol. 11, pp. 3	article	DOI
Abstract: We present a novel empirical study on German directly comparing the exhaustivity inference in es-clefts to exhaustivity inferences in definite pseudoclefts, exclusives, and plain intonational focus constructions. We employ mouse-driven verification/falsification tasks in an incremental information-retrieval paradigm across two experiments in order to assess the strength of exhaustivity in the four sentence types. The results are compatible with a parallel analysis of clefts and definite pseudoclefts, in line with previous claims in the literature (Percus 1997, Büring & Križ 2013). In striking contrast with such proposals, in which the exhaustivity inference is conventionally coded in the cleft-structure in terms of maximality/homogeneity, our study found that the exhaustivity inference is not systematic or robust in es-clefts nor in definite pseudoclefts: Whereas some speakers treat both constructions as exhaustive, others treat both constructions as non-exhaustive. In order to account for this unexpected finding, we argue that the exhaustivity inference in both clefts and definite pseudoclefts — specifically those with the compound definite derjenige — is pragmatically derived from the anaphoric existence presupposition that is common to both constructions.
BibTeX: @article{DeVeaughGeiss2018, author = {De Veaugh-Geiss, Joseph P and Tönnis, Swantje and Onea, Edgar and Zimmermann, Malte}, title = {That’s not quite it: An experimental investigation of (non-) exhaustivity in clefts}, journal = {Semantics and Pragmatics}, year = {2018}, volume = {11}, pages = {3}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.3765/sp.11.3} }
Downing, L.J.	On the (non-) congruence of focus and prominence in Tumbuka [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2012	Selected Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Conference on African Linguistics. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project, pp. 122-133	inproceedings	URL
Abstract: It is widely assumed in the linguistic literature on focus that, cross-linguistically: “Focus needs to be maximally [prosodically] prominent” (Büring 2010: 178; see, too, Frota (2000), Gundel (1988), Jackendoff (1972), Roberts (1998), Rooth (1992, 1996), Reinhart (1995), Samek-Lodovici (2005), Selkirk (1995, 2004), Szendröi (2003), and Truckenbrodt (1995, 2005)). However, there is also a growing list of counterexamples to the Focus-Prominence correlation. I show in this paper that Tumbuka, a Bantu language (N20) spoken in Malawi, should be added to the list of problematic cases. After presenting a brief sketch of Tumbuka prosody in section 2, section 3 demonstrates noncongruence between focus and maximal prominence by discussing the prosody of the following focusrelated constructions: wh-questions and answers; alternative (choice) questions and answers; and the focus particle -so ‘also’. I conclude in section 4 with questions for future research and implications of Tumbuka for the typology of focus prosody.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Downing2012, author = {Downing, Laura J}, title = {On the (non-) congruence of focus and prominence in Tumbuka}, booktitle = {Selected Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Conference on African Linguistics. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project}, year = {2012}, pages = {122--133}, url = {http://www.lingref.com/cpp/acal/42/paper2764.pdf} }
Faller, M.	Semantics and Pragmatics of Evidentials in Cuzco Quechua [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2002	School: Stanford University	phdthesis	URL
Abstract: This dissertation explores the semantics and pragmatics of evidentiality through a detailed study of three evidential markers in Cuzco Quechua (spoken in Cuzco, Peru), the Direct -mi, the Conjectural -ch´a and the Reportative -si. I adopt a narrow definition of evidentiality as the linguistic encoding of the speaker’s grounds for making a speech act, which in the case of assertions corresponds with his or her source of information. The meaning of each of the three Cuzco Quechua evidentials, as well as their absence, is described based on data collected by the author and from published sources. One of the central cross-linguistic questions in the study of evidentiality is how it is related to epistemic modality. I argue that the two concepts are distinct, but overlapping categories. I show that the evidential enclitics in Cuzco Quechua differ from typical epistemic modals in that they do not contribute to the main proposition expressed, can never occur in the scope of propositional operators such as negation, and can only occur in illocutionary force bearing environments. Furthermore, the Direct and the Reportative are not analyzable in terms of epistemic necessity or possibility. In contrast, the Conjectural also encodes epistemic possibility, and it is therefore considered to be in the evidentiality/epistemic modality overlap. It is argued that an evidential scale in terms of strength of evidence can be defined. Against previous proposals, I argue that this is only a partial ordering, since conjectural is not stronger than reportative evidence, or vice versa. For each ordered pair of evidentials the weaker one (e.g. Reportative) gives rise to the implicature that the stronger one (e.g. Direct) could not have been used in its stead. The Cuzco Quechua evidentials are analyzed as illocutionary modifiers which add v to or modify the sincerity conditions of the act they apply to. The resulting act is assertion of the proposition expressed p for the Direct, and assertion of p for the Conjectural. For sentences with the Reportative, I propose a new illocutionary act: “presentation” of p. This analysis accounts for the afore-mentioned as well as other properties of these evidentials
BibTeX: @phdthesis{Faller2002, author = {Martina Faller}, title = {Semantics and Pragmatics of Evidentials in Cuzco Quechua}, school = {Stanford University}, year = {2002}, url = {https://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/martina.t.faller/documents/Thesis-A4.pdf} }
Faller, M.	Evidential scalar implicatures [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2012	Linguistics and Philosophy Vol. 35(4), pp. 285-312	article	DOI
Abstract: This paper develops an analysis of a scalar implicature that is induced by the use of reportative evidentials such as the Cuzco Quechua enclitic = si and the German modal sollen. Reportatives, in addition to specifying the speaker’s source of information for a statement as a report by someone else, also usually convey that the speaker does not have direct evidence for the proposition expressed. While this type of implicature can be calculated using the same kind of Gricean reasoning that underlies other scalar implicatures, it requires two departures from standard assumptions. First, evidential scalar implicatures differ from the more familiar scalar implicatures in that they do not turn on the notion of informativeness but on the notion of evidential strength. Second, the implicature arises on the illocutionary level of meaning. It is argued that a version of Grice’s maxim of quantity in terms of illocutionary strength can account for this evidential scalar implicature as well as for the more typical scalar implicatures. The account developed also proposes some revisions to the taxonomy of speech acts and suggests that the sincerity conditions of assertive speech acts contain an evidential sincerity condition in addition to the belief condition standardly assumed.
BibTeX: @article{Faller2012, author = {Martina Faller}, title = {Evidential scalar implicatures}, journal = {Linguistics and Philosophy}, publisher = {Springer Science and Business Media LLC}, year = {2012}, volume = {35}, number = {4}, pages = {285--312}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s10988-012-9119-8} }
Gast, V. and Rzymski, C.	Towards a corpus-based analysis of evaluative scales associated with even [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2015	Linguistik Online Vol. 71(2)	article	DOI
Abstract: Scalar focus operators like even, only, etc. interact with scales, i. e., ordered sets of alternatives that are referenced by focus structure. The scaling dimensions interacting with focus operators have been argued to be semantic (e. g. entailment relations, probability) in earlier work, but it has been shown that purely semantic analyses are too restrictive, and that the specific scale that a given operator interacts with is often pragmatic, in the sense of being a function of the context. If that is true, the question arises what exactly determines the (types of) scales interacting with focus operators. The present study addresses this question by investigating the distributional behaviour of the additive scalar particle even relative to scales whose focus alternatives are ordered in terms of evaluative attitudes (positive, negative). Our hypothesis is that such evaluative attitudinal scales are at least partially functions of the lexical material in the sentential environment. This hypothesis is tested by determining correlations between sentence-level attitudes and lexically encoded attitudes in the relevant sentences. We use data from the Europarl corpus, a corpus of scripted and highly elaborated political speech, which is rich in argumentative discourse and thus lends itself to the study of attitudes in context. Our results show that there are in fact significant correlations between (manual) sentence-level evaluations and lexical evaluations (determined through machine learning) in the textual environment of the relevant operators. We conclude with an outlook on possible extensions of the method applied in the present study by identifying attitudinal patterns beyond the sentence, showing that positively and negatively connotated instances of even differ in terms of their argumentative function, with positive even often marking the climax and endpoint of an argument, while negative even often occurs in qualifying insertions like concessive parentheses. While we regard our results as valid, some refinements and extensions of the method are pointed out as necessary steps towards the establishment of an empirical sentence semantics, in the domain of scalar additive operators as well as more generally speaking.
BibTeX: @article{Gast2015, author = {Volker Gast and Christoph Rzymski}, title = {Towards a corpus-based analysis of evaluative scales associated with even}, journal = {Linguistik Online}, publisher = {University of Bern}, year = {2015}, volume = {71}, number = {2}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.13092/lo.71.1782} }
Grubic, M.	Kapa as an End-of-Scale Marker in Bole and Ngizim (West Chadic) [BibTeX]	2005	Vol. 16(1)Proceedings of Sinn Und Bedeutung	inproceedings	URL
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Grubic2005, author = {Mira Grubic}, title = {Kapa as an End-of-Scale Marker in Bole and Ngizim (West Chadic)}, booktitle = {Proceedings of Sinn Und Bedeutung}, year = {2005}, volume = {16}, number = {1}, url = {https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/sub/index.php/sub/article/view/427} }
Grubic, M. and Zimmermann, M.	Conventional and free association with focus in Ngamo (West Chadic) [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2011	Vol. 15Proceedings of Sinn & Bedeutung, pp. 291-305	inproceedings	URL
Abstract: The paper discusses association with focus in Ngamo (West Chadic, Afro-Asiatic). We present evidence from thisnon-Indoeuropean language in favour of Beaver& Clark (2008)’s claim that different kinds of focus-sensitive elements interact with the meaning of focus in different ways, namely conventional association with focus vs free association.We show that exclusive particles (only) in Ngamo, as in English, conventionally associate with focus. (Scalar-) Additive particles (also, even), by contrast, do not pattern like their English counterparts: Same as Q-adverbials, they are more free in their association behaviour, and can also associate with non-focused elements under certain conditions.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Grubic2011, author = {Mira Grubic and Malte Zimmermann}, title = {Conventional and free association with focus in Ngamo (West Chadic)}, booktitle = {Proceedings of Sinn & Bedeutung}, publisher = {Universaar – Saarland University Press}, year = {2011}, volume = {15}, pages = {291-305}, url = {https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/sub/index.php/sub/article/view/382} }
Grubic, M.	Two strategies of reopening QUDs: Evidence from German auch and noch [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2018	Vol. 21Proceedings of Sinn Und Bedeutung	inproceedings	URL
Abstract: This paper argues for a domain restriction account for wh-words in questions using resource situations, in parallel with the domain restriction of quantifiers proposed in Kratzer (2011). It is argued that under a situation semantic account assuming resource situations, the different behaviour of additive particles can be explained: Under a question under discussion account, additive particles like too and also are used when a (possibly covert) question is ‘reopened’ in order to add a further true answer (Beaver and Clark 2008, i.a.). This paper suggests that there are two ways in which a question can be re-addressed: it can either be reopened with (i) a different resource situation or (ii) with a different topic situation. This can explain the different behaviour of the additive particles auch and noch in German.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Grubic2018, author = {Mira Grubic}, title = {Two strategies of reopening QUDs: Evidence from German auch and noch}, booktitle = {Proceedings of Sinn Und Bedeutung}, year = {2018}, volume = {21}, url = {https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/sub/index.php/sub/article/view/152} }
Grubic, M.	Additives and Accommodation [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2019	Secondary Content, pp. 168 - 199	incollection	DOI URL
Abstract: This chapter discusses the presupposition of German auch (“too”). While secondary meanings associated with other triggers can often be informative, additive particles require their presupposition to be salient at the time of utterance. According to one account, additives require a parallel proposition to be salient (e.g. Beaver & Zeevat 2007). Another account suggests that only another individual needs to be salient, while the remainder of the presupposition can be accommodated (e.g. Heim 1992). In this chapter, an experiment comparing these two accounts is presented and discussed. It is argued that the second account is better suited to explain the results.
BibTeX: @incollection{Grubic2019, author = {Mira Grubic}, title = {Additives and Accommodation}, booktitle = {Secondary Content}, publisher = {Brill}, year = {2019}, pages = {168 - 199}, url = {https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004393127/BP000007.xml}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004393127_008} }
Gundel, J.K. and Hedberg, N.	Reference and Cognitive Status: Scalar Inference and Typology [Comment] [BibTeX]	2015	Information Structuring of Spoken Language from a Cross-linguistic Perspective	incollection	DOI
Comment: [Summary taken from intro]: In this paper, we will be concerned with referential givenness/newness, specifically within the Givenness Hierarchy theory proposed in Gundel, Hedberg and Zacharski (1993 and subsequent work), which attempts to explain the distribution and interpretation of different nominal expressions, and the fact that such forms succeed in picking out a speaker’s intended interpretation even though the conceptual information they encode rarely, if ever, determines a unique referent. We begin by briefly summarizing the Givenness Hierarchy theory. We then correct some misconceptions and misinterpretations that have appeared in the literature on the predictions of the theory. Finally, we discuss some cross-linguistic and typological facts about the ways in which languages can differ and ways they appear to be alike with respect to encoding cognitive statuses on the Givenness Hierarchy.
BibTeX: @incollection{Gundel2015, author = {Gundel, Jeanette K. and Hedberg, Nancy}, title = {Reference and Cognitive Status: Scalar Inference and Typology}, booktitle = {Information Structuring of Spoken Language from a Cross-linguistic Perspective}, publisher = {De Gruyter Mouton}, year = {2015}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110368758-003} }
Gutzmann, D. and Miró, E.C.	The Dimensions of VERUM [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2011	Empirical Issues in Syntax and Semantics	inproceedings	URL
Abstract: In this paper we study the semantics of so-called verum focus from the point of view of a multi-dimensional semantic model. As coined by Höhle (1992), verum focus is non-contrastive focus on the verb or a complementizer located in C in German, and it is a way of realizing the corresponding operator VERUM. In the small amount of previous literature, VERUM has been treated as a pure semantic operator. In contrast, we show that those one-dimensional treatments make the wrong predictions about the truth-conditions of an utterance involving verum focus as well as about its discourse contribution. Equipped with a multidimensional semantic framework, we treat VERUM as an expressive function that operates in the use-conditional dimension. It takes as argument a proposition p and expresses the interpretational instruction to downdate the corresponding question ?p from the question under discussion. We show that this approach to VERUM can account for the distribution of verum focus, and its discourse contribution.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Gutzmann2011, author = {Daniel Gutzmann and Elena Castroviejo Miró}, title = {The Dimensions of VERUM}, booktitle = {Empirical Issues in Syntax and Semantics}, year = {2011}, url = {http://www.cssp.cnrs.fr/eiss8/index_en.html} }
Hartmann, K. and Zimmermann, M.	Focus marking in Bura: semantic uniformity matches syntactic heterogeneity [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2012	Natural Language & Linguistic Theory Vol. 30(4), pp. 1061-1108	article	DOI
Abstract: The present article introduces a theory of (morpho-)syntactic focus marking on nominal categories in Bura, a Central Chadic SVO language spoken in the northeast of Nigeria. Our central claim is that the particle an plays a crucial role in the marking of subject and non-subject focus. We put forward a uniform analysis of an as a focus copula that selects for syntactic predicates of type and a focused constituent of type . This uniform semantic representation is transparently mapped onto different syntactic structures: In a clause with a focused subject, the focus copula appears between the subject in SpecTP and the predicative VP. On the other hand, syntactically focused non-subjects are fronted and appear in a bi-clausal cleft structure that contains the focus copula and a relative cleft-remnant. The non-uniform analysis of focus marking is further supported by the structure of predicative constructions, in which the focus copula separates the focused subject and the adjectival or nominal predicate. It is also shown that alternative unified analyses fail to account for the full range of Bura data. The latter part of the article provides an analysis of the Bura cleft construction. Based on syntactic and semantic evidence, we come to the conclusion that the clefted constituent is base-generated in its initial surface position, and that an empty operator moves within the relative clause. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the potential conceptual reasons behind the observed subject/non-subject asymmetry in Bura.
BibTeX: @article{Hartmann2012, author = {Katharina Hartmann and Malte Zimmermann}, title = {Focus marking in Bura: semantic uniformity matches syntactic heterogeneity}, journal = {Natural Language & Linguistic Theory}, publisher = {Springer}, year = {2012}, volume = {30}, number = {4}, pages = {1061--1108}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s11049-012-9174-4} }
Hautli-Janisz, A. and El-Assady, M.	Rhetorical strategies in German argumentative dialogs [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2017	Argument and Computation Vol. 8, pp. 153-174	article	DOI
Abstract: An important factor of argument mining in dialog or multilog data is the framing with which interlocutors put forth their arguments. By using rhetorical devices such as hedging or reference to the Common Ground, speakers relate themselves to their interlocutors, their arguments, and the ongoing discourse. Capitalizing on theoretical linguistic insights into the semantics and pragmatics of discourse particles in German, we propose a categorization of rhetorical information that is highly relevant in natural transcribed speech. In order to shed light on the rhetorical strategies of different interlocutors in large amounts of real mediation data, we use a method from Visual Analytics which allows for an exploration of the rhetorical patterns via an interactive visual interface. With this innovative combination of theoretical linguistics, argument mining and information visualization, we offer a novel way of analyzing framing strategies in large amounts of multi-party argumentative discourse in German.
BibTeX: @article{HautliJanisz2017, author = {Annette Hautli-Janisz and Mennatallah El-Assady}, title = {Rhetorical strategies in German argumentative dialogs}, journal = {Argument and Computation}, year = {2017}, volume = {8}, pages = {153-174}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.3233/AAC-170022} }
Hinterwimmer, S. and Ebert, C.	A Comparison of fei and aber [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2018	Vol. 22Proceedings of Sinn Und Bedeutung	inproceedings	URL
Abstract: This paper compares the modal particle fei (Schlieben-Lange, 1979; Thoma, 2009) with the modal particle/sentence adverb aber (not to be confused with the conjunction aber, ‘but’). Intuitively, both items express some form of contrast and correction. We will show that both are special among discourse particles in the following sense: They make a contribution that is interpreted at a level distinct from the level where at-issue content (Potts, 2005) is interpreted, as is standard for modal particles (see Gutzmann, 2015 and the references therein). But more interestingly, they exclusively relate to propositions that have not entered the Common Ground via being the at-issue content of an assertion made by the addressee.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Hinterwimmer2018, author = {Stefan Hinterwimmer and Cornelia Ebert}, title = {A Comparison of fei and aber}, booktitle = {Proceedings of Sinn Und Bedeutung}, year = {2018}, volume = {22}, url = {https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/sub/index.php/sub/article/view/101} }
Horn, L.R.	Assertoric inertia and NPI licensing [BibTeX]	2002	Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society. Volume 38, Part Two: The Panels	inproceedings	URL
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Horn2002, author = {Laurence R. Horn}, title = {Assertoric inertia and NPI licensing}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society. Volume 38, Part Two: The Panels}, publisher = {University of Chicago Press}, year = {2002}, url = {https://ling.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/horn/horn02_inertia.pdf} }
Ippolito, M.	The Contribution of Gestures to the Semantics of Non-Canonical Questions [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2021	Journal of Semantics	article	DOI
Abstract: The symbolic gesture MAT (mano a tulipano) used by native speakers of Italian characterizes non-canonical wh questions when used both as a co-speech and pro-speech gesture. MAT can be executed with either a fast tempo contour or a slow tempo contour. Tempo is semantically significant: descriptively, a fast tempo characterizes a biased but information-seeking non-canonical question; a slow tempo characterizes a rhetorical non-canonical question. I argue that the fast contour is the default tempo of MAT and that it brings about a biased interpretation. Slowing down the movement occurs when the feature [slow] is added: the semantic contribution of this feature is to add the presupposition that the question is resolved in the conversational context, resulting in the rhetorical interpretation of the question.
BibTeX: @article{Ippolito2021, author = {Michela Ippolito}, title = {The Contribution of Gestures to the Semantics of Non-Canonical Questions}, journal = {Journal of Semantics}, year = {2021}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1093/jos/ffab007} }
Ito, M.	Japanese-speaking children's interpretation of sentences containing the focus particle datte even: Conventional implicatures, QUD, and processing limitations [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2012	Linguistics Vol. 50(1)	article	DOI
Abstract: This paper investigates Japanese-speaking children’s (in)sensitivity to information strength when interpreting sentences containing the focus particle datte ‘even.’ It examines whether or not their sensitivity is affected by the Question Under Discussion (QUD) and the Felicity Judgment (FJ) task based on the Processing Limitation Hypothesis (PLH; cf. Chierchia et al. 2001, 2004). Because datte ‘even’ is not a scalar term, it does not give rise to scalar implicatures (SIs) by constituting a part of scales. ‘Even’ evokes conventional implicatures. However, an ‘even’ sentence in context — in addition to the conventional implicatures — evokes a special case of SI calculated from contextdependent scales, which is pragmatic inferences induced by ‘even’s conventional implicatures (i.e., the word’s semantic/pragmatic import). The relevant scale (generally) concerns the NP element focused by ‘even’ and a set of alternatives. Because sentences without ‘even’ do not evoke any SI, I assume that the relevant implicatures are conventional in nature. Three experiments were done to examine whether Japanese-speaking children are really (in)capable of calculating conventional implicatures derived from datte sentences. It was found that (i) Children are insensitive to pragmatic anomalies of single “infelicitous” sentences (Experiments 1 and 2). This inability to detect pragmatic infelicity is consistent with findings about their ability to compute SIs. On the other hand, the adults showed sensitivity to conventional implicatures in all three experiments, which may be taken as evidence that the computation of implicatures derived from datte sentences differs from that of SIs. (ii) Unlike the results reported for SI in Zondervan (2007, 2009), the wh-focus/QUD way of asking questions does not facilitate the children’s performance with datte sentences (Experiment 2). (iii) The FJ task improved children’s performance (Experiment 3), thus supporting the PLH, which was applied to SI computation (Chierchia et al. 2004; cf. Reinhart 1999, 2006), and to the computation of implicatures involved in datte sentences. (iv) Children are unable to compute implicatures based on context-specific pragmatic scales derived from datte sentences, when a single “underinformative” statement is given. This partly contradicts previous findings on SI based on context dependent pragmatic scales (Papafragou and Tantalou 2004). The results indicate that children’s insensitivity to the pragmatic infelicity of datte sentences stems from the processing load induced by building and maintaining alternative representations, as reported for SI computation.
BibTeX: @article{Ito2012, author = {Masuyo Ito}, title = {Japanese-speaking children's interpretation of sentences containing the focus particle datte even: Conventional implicatures, QUD, and processing limitations}, journal = {Linguistics}, publisher = {Walter de Gruyter}, year = {2012}, volume = {50}, number = {1}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2012-0004} }
Jasinskaja, E. and Zeevat, H.	Explaining Conjunction Systems: Russian, English, German [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2009	Vol. 13Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung, pp. 231-245	inproceedings	URL
Abstract: The paper analyses the Russian conjunctions i, a and no, the English conjunctions and and but and the German conjunctions und, aber and sondern in terms of specialised additivity: special cases of the relation between sentences expressed by too and also. The first section gives an overview of the analysis, the second section tries to give an explicit characterisation of additivity and its specialisations. The third section uses an OT-like framework to explain the complementary distribution of the conjunctions and the blocking effects that result.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Jasinskaja2009, author = {Ekaterina Jasinskaja and Henk Zeevat}, title = {Explaining Conjunction Systems: Russian, English, German}, booktitle = {Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung}, year = {2009}, volume = {13}, pages = {231-245}, url = {https://dslc.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/sites/dslc/katja_files/jasinskaja_zeevat_2009.pdf} }
Jasinskaja, E.	Corrective Contrast in Russian, in Contrast [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2010	Russian in Contrast Vol. 2(2), pp. 433-466	article	DOI
Abstract: In many languages markers of contrast, such as the English 'but', are also used to express correction: John didn't go to Paris, but to Berlin. The present paper tries to explain this cross-linguistic pattern and represents correction as a special case of contrast. It focuses on the Russian contrastive conjunction 'a' and argues that its corrective uses in combination with negation 'ne ... a' / 'a ne', which are traditionally viewed as a fixed collocation, are in fact co-occurrences of a general contrastive 'a' with constituent negation.
BibTeX: @article{Jasinskaja2010, author = {Ekaterina Jasinskaja}, title = {Corrective Contrast in Russian, in Contrast}, journal = {Russian in Contrast}, year = {2010}, volume = {2}, number = {2}, pages = {433-466}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.5617/osla.85} }
Jasinskaja, E.	The Global Aboutness Topic in German Narrative [BibTeX]	2010		unpublished	URL
BibTeX: @unpublished{Jasinskaja2010, author = {Ekaterina Jasinskaja}, title = {The Global Aboutness Topic in German Narrative}, year = {2010}, note = {Ms. Centre for Advanced Study, Oslo}, url = {https://dslc.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/sites/dslc/katja_files/jasinskaja_topic.pdf} }
Jasinskaja, E. and Karagjosova, E.	Elaboration and Explanation [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2011	Proceedings of Constraints in Discourse 4	inproceedings	URL
Abstract: In this paper we study two realisation patterns shared between elaboration and explanation relations: unmarked connection, i.e. juxtaposition of sentences without any explicit marker, and the German marker ‘n¨amlich’ (namely), which must have emerged as a marker of specification but has spread in the direction of explanation. We try to answer the question what is common to elaboration and explanation relations which licenses the use of same expressive patterns, and argue that elaboration and explanation are closely connected in the conceptual space of discourse relations.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Jasinskaja2011, author = {Ekaterina Jasinskaja and Elena Karagjosova}, title = {Elaboration and Explanation}, booktitle = {Proceedings of Constraints in Discourse 4}, year = {2011}, url = {https://dslc.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/sites/dslc/katja_files/jasinskaja_karagjosova_ElEx.pdf} }
Jasinskaja, E.	Correction by adversative and additive markers [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2012	Lingua Vol. 122(15), pp. 1899-1918	article	DOI
Abstract: Corrective uses of adversative markers like but, as in John isn’t going to Paris, but to Berlin, have proved rather difficult to capture in a unified theory of adversative markers, whereas corrective uses of additive markers, as in John is going to Berlin, and not to Paris, have been almost entirely ignored in theoretical semantics and pragmatics. These uses are taken under closer consideration in this paper, with special focus on the phenomenon I will refer to as (a)symmetric correction. I propose the following generalisation. Adversative markers are asymmetric in their corrective uses (e.g. the English but). That is, the first conjunct of but must be negated, while the second is positive. If the order of the negative and the positive conjunct is reversed, the corrective reading is not available for but, though it can be recovered if but is replaced by and or left out altogether. In contrast, additive markers are symmetric in this function. If a language standardly employs an additive marker to express correction (e.g. the Russian a), the order of the negative and the positive conjunct does not affect its corrective interpretation. The present paper develops a unified account of the semantics of but which accommodates its corrective uses and explains the above mentioned asymmetry. The proposed solution has non-trivial consequences for a general theory of additivity and adversativity, in particular, for the ongoing debate which function of but is the most basic, ‘denial of expectation’ or ‘formal contrast’.
BibTeX: @article{Jasinskaja2012, author = {Ekaterina Jasinskaja}, title = {Correction by adversative and additive markers}, journal = {Lingua}, year = {2012}, volume = {122}, number = {15}, pages = {1899-1918}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2012.08.015} }
Jayez, J. and Winterstein, G.	Additivity and probability [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2013	Lingua Vol. 132, pp. 85-102	article	DOI
Abstract: In this work, we give a new semantics to the notion of additivity as embodied by several discourse markers and particles in French: et, de plus and d’ailleurs. The common property of these different elements is the notion of independence of their arguments. We show that existing accounts of additive particles fail to do full justice to this notion of independence, and we propose a new semantics for and that captures this notion in a Bayesian fashion. We then evaluate the applicability of this analysis to de plus and d’ailleurs and show that, unlike et, these elements are strongly argumentative: they make an explicit reference to an external issue that is disputed in the current conversation.
BibTeX: @article{Jayez2013, author = {Jacques Jayez and Grégoire Winterstein}, title = {Additivity and probability}, journal = {Lingua}, publisher = {Elsevier}, year = {2013}, volume = {132}, pages = {85--102}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2012.11.004} }
Jivanyan, H.	At-Issue or Not-At-Issue Discourse Contribution by Puisque (F ‘Since’)? Information Structure and Discourse Structure [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2020	Fresh Perspectives on Major Issues in Pragmatics	inproceedings	DOI
Abstract: The main goal of this chapter is to study the discourse contribution of the clauses linked by the discourse connective puisque (‘since’, PSQ) in French, in terms of (not-)at-issue meaning. This question constitutes the novelty of this chapter, since it has not been addressed with respect to PSQ, or even with respect to discourse connectives, to my knowledge. This new question implies a specific methodological framework providing new theoretical instruments to answer it: The analysis is carried out within a formal discourse-pragmatic model based on the notion of Question Under Discussion (QUD; cf. Roberts 1996; Velleman & Beaver 2015). Thus, an important outcome of this chapter is that it puts the study of discourse connectives in general, and of PSQ in particular, in a new theoretical framework. In order to evaluate the discourse contribution of PSQ-clauses, I take into consideration several aspects of PSQ-usages: i) the information structure of the relation PSQ establishes, ii) the type of coherence relation expressed, and, crucially, iii) the clause-linking specificities of PSQ. The first two aspects are widely studied in discourse-analytical models. The third one is traditionally well attested (Groupe Lambda-L 1975; Ducrot 1983), however, it has not been questioned from the point of view of the theoretical implications it bears on discourse progression or the discourse-level information structure of PSQ-clauses. The study of the latter will be the main import of this chapter, captured in terms of (not-)at-issueness. The analysis of PSQ-usage with respect to the question of how the PSQ-clause contributes to discourse progression reveals that PSQ is not homogeneous in its usages. Limiting the analysis on medial positions of PSQ, two types of PSQ-usages are distinguished. These two types are different with respect to the information status of the PSQ-clause, the type of coherence relation expressed, as well as the way the PSQ-clause contributes to discourse progression, either as at-issue or not-at-issue content.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Jivanyan2020, author = {Hasmik Jivanyan}, title = {At-Issue or Not-At-Issue Discourse Contribution by Puisque (F ‘Since’)? Information Structure and Discourse Structure}, booktitle = {Fresh Perspectives on Major Issues in Pragmatics}, publisher = {Routledge}, year = {2020}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003017462-8} }
Káldi, T.	Hungarian Pre-verbal Focus: Representation and Interpretation [BibTeX]	2021	School: Budapest University of Technology and Economics	phdthesis	URL
BibTeX: @phdthesis{Kaldi2021, author = {Tamás Káldi}, title = {Hungarian Pre-verbal Focus: Representation and Interpretation}, school = {Budapest University of Technology and Economics}, year = {2021}, url = {https://repozitorium.omikk.bme.hu/handle/10890/15355?locale-attribute=en} }
Karagjosova, E.	Discourse Particles, Discourse Relations and Information Structure: The Case of Nämlich [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2011	International Review of Pragmatics Vol. 3(1), pp. 33-58	article	DOI
Abstract: The paper presents an analysis of the meaning and discourse effects of the German discourse particle nämlich that unifies its different readings and explains its distributional properties. I suggest that nämlich is most adequately analysed in terms of it indicating a specificational relation between its host and the preceding sentence, which in a question-based framework can be implemented as indicating an answer to a "specifying question", a discourse question requiring an answer that provides a more detailed description of some aspect of the preceding utterance. The analysis represents a refinement and extension of the question-based analysis of nämlich developed in Onea and Volodina (2009) where nämlich is analysed in terms of indicating that its host is a short answer to an implicit constituent question or a Why-discourse question. The approach I provide suggests solutions to several puzzles related to the distributional properties of nämlich.
BibTeX: @article{Karagjosova2011, author = {Elena Karagjosova}, title = {Discourse Particles, Discourse Relations and Information Structure: The Case of Nämlich}, journal = {International Review of Pragmatics}, year = {2011}, volume = {3}, number = {1}, pages = {33-58}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1163/187731011X561018} }
Karvovskaya, L.	'Also' in Ishkashimi : additive particle and sentence connector [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2013		inproceedings	URL
Abstract: The paper discusses the distribution and meaning of the additive particle -mes in Ishkashimi. -mes receives different semantic associations while staying in the same syntactic position. Thus, structurally combined with an object, it can semantically associate with the focused object or with the whole focused VP; similarly, combined with the subject it can semantically associate with the focused subject and with the whole focused sentence.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Karvovskaya2013, author = {Lena Karvovskaya}, title = {'Also' in Ishkashimi : additive particle and sentence connector}, year = {2013}, url = {https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/opus4-ubp/frontdoor/deliver/index/docId/6382/file/karv_75_97.pdf} }
Kotek, H. and Barros, M.	Multiple Sluicing, Scope, and Superiority: Consequences for Ellipsis Identity [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2018	Linguistic Inquiry Vol. 49(4), pp. 781-812	article	DOI
Abstract: This article defends a semantic identity account of ellipsis licensing. The argument comes from examples of multiple sluicing, especially from Russian. Concentrating on antecedents that contain two quantified statements, we uncover a surprising asymmetry: surface scope antecedents can license a multiple sluice, but inverse scope antecedents cannot. We explain this finding in terms of semantic accounts of ellipsis licensing, where ellipsis is licensed when the sluice corresponds to an (implicit) question under discussion. We show that QUDs cannot be computed from the truth-conditional content of the antecedents alone; instead, they must be computed only after (scalar) implicatures have been calculated and added to the common ground, along with the context of utterance. We further discuss the commitments required of syntactic/LF identity accounts of ellipsis licensing in order to accommodate multiple sluicing with quantified antecedents, and argue that such accounts are practically untenable.
BibTeX: @article{Kotek2018, author = {Kotek, Hadas and Barros, Matthew}, title = {Multiple Sluicing, Scope, and Superiority: Consequences for Ellipsis Identity}, journal = {Linguistic Inquiry}, year = {2018}, volume = {49}, number = {4}, pages = {781-812}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1162/ling_a_00289} }
Latrouite, A. and Riester, A.	The Role Of Information Structure For Morphosyntactic Choices In Tagalog [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2018	Perspectives on information structure in Austronesian languages	incollection	DOI
Abstract: In this paper we investigate the influence of two information structure (IS) related aspects on the choice of voice form and sentence structure by Tagalog speakers. The first is the information status of argument referents. Tagalog is a multiple voice language, so almost every semantic argument in a sentence can be turned into the privileged syntactic argument (or subject) and be rendered salient. Information status of the undergoer has been argued to play an important role in voice and subject selection. The second IS-related aspect is the inherent structure of a discourse as determined by the implicit questions under discussion (QUDs) that are answered with each subsequent sentence in a text. The default sentence in Tagalog starts with a verb. Inversion constructions, i.e. sentences that start with an argument phrase instead of a verb, are described as motivated by information structure considerations such as focus-background or contrastive-topic-focus packaging. Based on a novel QUD approach, we will work out the discourse structure and at-issue contents of five short texts and show the important role of implicit QUDs and parallelisms on the choice of voice and constituent order.
BibTeX: @incollection{Latrouite2018, author = {Latrouite, Anja and Riester, Arndt}, title = {The Role Of Information Structure For Morphosyntactic Choices In Tagalog}, booktitle = {Perspectives on information structure in Austronesian languages}, year = {2018}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.1402549} }
Lee, J.	Temporal constraints on the meaning of evidentiality [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2013	Natural Language Semantics Vol. 21, pp. 1-41	article	DOI
Abstract: This paper explores how the meaning of evidentiality is temporally constrained, by investigating the meaning of Korean evidential sentences with –te. Unlike evidential sentences in languages that have previously been formally analyzed , e.g. Cuzco Quechua and Cheyenne, Korean evidential sentences with –te are compatible with both direct and indirect evidence types. In this paper, I analyze –te as an evidential that lexically encodes the meaning of a ‘sensory observation’. I account for the availability of both direct and indirect evidential readings in terms of the variable temporal relation between relevant eventualities. I show that this temporal relation is compositionally determined by the interaction between –te and tense, and that it in turn constrains possible (direct vs. indirect) evidence types. I also provide empirical evidence for the modal meaning contributions of –te sentences, and develop a formal analysis in terms of Kratzer’s modal theory. The paper concludes by discussing the empirical and theoretical improvements of the proposed analysis over earlier analyses by Chung, and the implications for crosslinguistic studies of evidentials.
BibTeX: @article{Lee2013, author = {Jungmee Lee}, title = {Temporal constraints on the meaning of evidentiality}, journal = {Natural Language Semantics}, year = {2013}, volume = {21}, pages = {1-41}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s11050-012-9088-z} }
Littell, P.W.	Focus, predication, and polarity in Kwak'wala [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2016	School: University of British Columbia	phdthesis	DOI
Abstract: In this dissertation, I investigate the formal semantics and pragmatics of alternative focus in Kwak'wala, a critically endangered Northern Wakashan language of British Columbia, Canada. I show that several notable phenomena and outstanding mysteries of Kwak'wala grammar involve focus expression, and by making their discourse contexts explicit we can observe how changes in discourse-relevant alternatives correspond to changes in morphosyntactic expression. These observations invite reappraisals of classic claims about Kwak'wala and Wakashan grammar, such as the claims that Kwak'wala lacks a noun/verb/adjective distinction (Boas et al., 1947, p. 280) and also lacks a copula (Boas et al., 1947, p. 205). Instead, I argue that Kwak'wala does indeed have a noun/verb/adjective distinction as well as equative (but not predicative) copulas, and show that these are tied up closely with the expression of focus. I argue, contra Koch's (2008) proposal for Nɬeʔkepmxcín focus, that Kwak'wala focus is not based on alignment to the edges of prosodic phrases, but based on the use of marked predication structures in which speakers choose non-optimal predicates like NPs and DPs over unmarked predicates like VPs. I also examine Kwak'wala additive and exclusive focus operators, and in particular investigate their distinctive association patterns, in which different exclusive operators associate with different types of “focus phrase” (Drubig 1994), while additive operators exhibit free association. I propose a hybrid focus model, a combination of the models in Wold (1996), Roberts (1996/2012) and Krifka (2006), among others, in which Kwak'wala focus operators associate with focus phrases, but derive their specific alternatives indirectly, through constraints on a contextual “question under discussion” variable. Finally, I examine the ubiquitous “discourse” enclitic =ʔm, which I propose expresses a discourse-relevant bipolar (e.g., P,¬P) contrast, and thereby distinguishes bipolar from monopolar (e.g., P) questions and answers (cf. Krifka 2013). The appearance of =ʔm in all additive and exclusive sentences provides morphological evidence that such sentences respond to complex alternative sets consisting of both constituent-type and polar-type contrasts (Krifka 1998, Rullmann 2003).
BibTeX: @phdthesis{Littell2016, author = {Littell, Patrick William}, title = {Focus, predication, and polarity in Kwak'wala}, school = {University of British Columbia}, year = {2016}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.14288/1.0300439} }
Matthewson, L., Davis, H. and Rullmann, H.	Evidentials as epistemic modals: Evidence from St’´at’imcets [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2007	The Linguistic Variation Yearbook 7, pp. 201-254	inproceedings	URL
Abstract: This paper argues that evidential clitics in St’át’imcets (a.k.a. Lillooet; Northern Interior Salish) introduce quantification over possible worlds and must be analyzed as epistemic modals. We thus add to the growing body of evidence suggesting that the functions of encoding information source and encoding epistemic modality are not necessarily distinct. However, St’át’imcets evidentials differ from English modal auxiliaries not only in that the former explicitly encode the source of the speaker’s evidence, but also in that they do not encode differences in quantificational force. We therefore argue that distinguishing quantificational strength is not an intrinsic property of modal elements. With respect to the syntax-semantics interface, we argue on the basis of data from St’át’imcets against attempts to establish a universally fixed position for evidentials in the functional hierarchy. We conclude that evidentiality is not a homogeneous category, either semantically or syntactically. On the semantic side, cross-linguistically and even within a single language, elements which encode information source may or may not fall into the category of epistemic modals (as already argued by Faller 2002, to appear). On the syntactic side, evidentials in most languages do not form grammaticalized systems and are not confined to a single position in the functional hierarchy. We suggest that evidentiality per se is a ‘parasitic’ category, since evidential meanings may be associated with any of the principal functional heads in the IP domain: mood, tense, or aspect.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Matthewson2007, author = {Lisa Matthewson and Henry Davis and Hotze Rullmann}, title = {Evidentials as epistemic modals: Evidence from St’´at’imcets}, booktitle = {The Linguistic Variation Yearbook 7}, publisher = {John Benjamins}, year = {2007}, pages = {201-254}, url = {https://semanticsarchive.net/Archive/DlhZTdkZ/Evidentials as epistemic modals.pdf} }
AnderBois, S.	At-issueness in direct quotation the case of Mayan and quotatives [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2019	Proceedings of SALT 29	inproceedings	DOI
Abstract: In addition to lexical verbs of saying, many languages have more grammaticized means for reporting the speech of others. This paper presents the first detailed formal account of one such device: quotative morphemes in Mayan languages, with a focus on Yucatec Maya ki(j). When mentioned in previous literature, quotatives have either been regarded as a special kind of verb of saying or reportative evidential. I argue that quotatives have important differences (and some similarities) with both verbs of saying and reportatives. To capture these properties, I propose a "scoreboard" account where quotative ki(j) signals that the co-occurring quotative material demonstrates a move in an in-narrative scoreboard.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Mayan2019, author = {Scott AnderBois}, title = {At-issueness in direct quotation the case of Mayan and quotatives}, booktitle = {Proceedings of SALT 29}, year = {2019}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.3765/salt.v29i0.4623} }
Mayol, L. and Castroviejo, E.	Evaluative adverbs in questions: a comparison between French and Catalan [BibTeX]	2014	Vol. 46(2)Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society [CLS46], pp. 143-158	inproceedings
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Mayol2014, author = {Laia Mayol and Elena Castroviejo}, title = {Evaluative adverbs in questions: a comparison between French and Catalan}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society [CLS46]}, year = {2014}, volume = {46}, number = {2}, pages = {143-158} }
Mayol, L. and Vallduví Botet, E.	Utterances with themes as strategies to address a broad Question Under Discussion [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2020	Vol. 24(1)Proceedings of Sinn Und Bedeutung, pp. 533-546	inproceedings	DOI
Abstract: In a QUD-model of discourse, any utterance elaborates on the maximal QUD in that context. QUDs play an essential role in defining the two parts in which an utterance can be divided: theme and rheme. An utterance must always contain a rheme, which is the part that elaborates on the QUD, and may contain a theme, which replicates content already present in the QUD. Since themes are replicating material already present in the QUD, one may wonder why themes are uttered at all. Vallduv´ı (2016) proposes that themes signal the the QUD update will have an intermediate step and that the QUD being addressed is not the maximal one. In other words, themes mark that the QUD update is non-default. The goal of this paper is to empirically examine one of these non-default updates and, in particular, whether theme-containing utterances can be used to signal that the QUD being addressed is broader than the maximal one and, if so, whether they are necessary in this situation. Two discourse-completion studies in Catalan were carried out. The results show that theme-containing utterances are mostly used to address a broad QUD (as opposed to narrower ones) and that when speakers decide to address a broad QUD, the proportion of theme-containing utterances increases significantly. The use of themes is, however, not required to signal this change of QUD; themeless-utterances can also be used in this context.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Mayol2020, author = {Mayol, Laia and Vallduví Botet, Enric}, title = {Utterances with themes as strategies to address a broad Question Under Discussion}, booktitle = {Proceedings of Sinn Und Bedeutung}, year = {2020}, volume = {24}, number = {1}, pages = {533-546}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.18148/sub/2020.v24i1.916} }
McNally, L.	Towards a Theory of the Linguistic Coding of Information Packaging Instructions [BibTeX]	1998	The Limits of Syntax, pp. 161-183	inproceedings	URL
BibTeX: @inproceedings{McNally1998, author = {Lousie McNally}, title = {Towards a Theory of the Linguistic Coding of Information Packaging Instructions}, booktitle = {The Limits of Syntax}, publisher = {Academic Press}, year = {1998}, pages = {161-183}, url = {https://www.upf.edu/documents/2979964/0/McNally_Info_Pack.pdf/eee85098-def6-4111-89ac-7aec44deca0f} }
McNally, L.	On recent formal analyses of ‘topic’ [Comment] [BibTeX]	1998	The Tbilisi Symposium on language, logic and computation, pp. 147-160	inproceedings	URL
Comment: McNally examines whether or not there's anything special about sentence topic. They argue that discourse topic is what call for a good formal characterization.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{McNally1998a, author = {Louise McNally}, title = {On recent formal analyses of ‘topic’}, booktitle = {The Tbilisi Symposium on language, logic and computation}, publisher = {CSLI Press}, year = {1998}, pages = {147-160}, url = {https://www.upf.edu/documents/2979964/0/tbilisi.pdf/a1cb0f6c-bfa7-45a1-bee5-fc5da4ddecf8} }
Meertens, E., Egger, S. and Romero, M.	Multiple accent in alternative questions [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2019	Vol. 23(2)Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung	inproceedings	DOI
Abstract: Alternative Questions (AltQs) are typically characterized by two prosodic cues: a final falling boundary tone and a pitch accent on each disjunct. Recent accounts in the literature have taken the final fall as the central surface cue for AltQ interpretation or have assigned a vacuous semantic contribution to the multiple accent on the disjuncts. Based on data from English and Turkish, we argue that both cues are equally important and require modelling in a unified account of AltQs. Combining ingredients from the literature (Roberts, 1996; Biezma, 2009; Westera, 2017), we propose that, essentially, the multiple accent shapes the Question under Discussion (QUD) and that the final fall, or the lack thereof, indicates restrictions on the content of the QUD via (un)satisfaction of Attention Maxims.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Meertens2019, author = {Erlinde Meertens and Sophie Egger and Maribel Romero}, title = {Multiple accent in alternative questions}, booktitle = {Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung}, year = {2019}, volume = {23}, number = {2}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.18148/sub/2019.v23i2.605} }
Miranda, W. and Silva, F.R.	Formal Similarities and Distinctions between the Contrastive Markers Mas (But), Já (already), and Agora (now) in Brazilian Portuguese [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2015	Revista Virtual de Estudos da Linguagem-Revel Vol. 13(9), pp. 120-138	article	URL
Abstract: This paper investigates the semantic and pragmatic characteristics of the connectives mas, já and agora in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), which mark contrast in this language. More specifically, this research aims to answer the following questions: (i) what is the semantic-pragmatic contribution of those connectives?; (ii) are there any syntactic or phonological differences among them?; (iii) might they be used in the same contexts?
BibTeX: @article{Miranda2015, author = {Miranda, Wânia and Silva, Fernanda Rosa}, title = {Formal Similarities and Distinctions between the Contrastive Markers Mas (But), Já (already), and Agora (now) in Brazilian Portuguese}, journal = {Revista Virtual de Estudos da Linguagem-Revel}, year = {2015}, volume = {13}, number = {9}, pages = {120--138}, url = {http://www.revel.inf.br/files/729d5bf91a8d7794a57b881a3555ada1.pdf} }
Mori, Y. and Hirayama, H.	Bare plurals in the left periphery in German and Italian [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2014	New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence	inproceedings	DOI
Abstract: Chierchia’s comparative analysis of nominals based on the two features [± arg] and [± pred] has lead to many discussions on the semantics of nominals in argument positions and predicate positions. On the other hand, many syntactic results about left dislocation and topicalization have been accumulated. In this paper, we will try to elucidate possibilities of bare plurals in the left periphery and differentiate their readings. By examining data from Italian and German we claim that different demands on foregoing contexts are organized as constructions, as far as the left periphery is concerned. In addition, those constructions also reflect an organization of discourse.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Mori2014, author = {Yoshiki Mori and Hitomi Hirayama}, title = {Bare plurals in the left periphery in German and Italian}, booktitle = {New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence}, publisher = {Springer International Publishing}, year = {2014}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10061-6} }
de Moura Menuzzi, S., Silva, M.C.F. and Doetjes, J.	Subject Bare Singulars in Brazilian Portuguese and Information Structure [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2015	Journal of Portuguese Linguistics Vol. 14	article	DOI
Abstract: This paper contributes to the debate on the semantics of bare singular nouns (BSNs) in Brazilian Portuguese by looking at the restrictions on their use as subjects. After a reassessment of the literature (e.g., Schmitt & Munn 1999, Müller 2000, Pires et al. 2010), we propose the following descriptive picture: BSN subjects are unconstrained in generic sentences, and somehow constrained with kind predicates and in episodic sentences. The literature has suggested that the constraints in episodic sentences have to do with information structure (e.g., Pires de Oliveira & Mariano 2010, Pires de Oliveira 2012). We submit this suggestion to scrutiny and demonstrate it is not information structure itself that is crucial. Episodic sentences with BSN subjects are utterances about kinds (under an “incompletely involved reading”, cf. Landman 1989) and must be ‘contextually relevant’ (cf. Roberts 1996). We then investigate BSN subjects of generic sentences, argued to be necessarily topics, which would support their analysis as unselective bound indefinites (Müller 2002a, 2004). We show that BSN subjects of generic sentences are not necessarily topics; moreover, they can actually have “incompletely involved kind readings”. We conclude that our results provide support to a kind-denoting analysis of BSNs in Brazilian Portuguese, as proposed by Pires de Oliveira & Rothstein (2011).
BibTeX: @article{MouraMenuzzi2015, author = {Sérgio de Moura Menuzzi and Maria Cristina Figueiredo Silva and Jenny Doetjes}, title = {Subject Bare Singulars in Brazilian Portuguese and Information Structure}, journal = {Journal of Portuguese Linguistics}, year = {2015}, volume = {14}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.5334/jpl.56} }
Murray, S.E.	Evidentiality and the Structure of Speech Acts [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2010	School: Rutgers University	phdthesis	URL
Abstract: Many languages grammatically mark evidentiality, i.e., the source of information. In assertions, evidentials indicate the source of information of the speaker while in questions they indicate the expected source of information of the addressee. This dissertation examines the semantics and pragmatics of evidentiality and illocutionary mood, set within formal theories of meaning and discourse. The empirical focus is the evidential system of Cheyenne (Algonquian: Montana), which is analyzed based on several years of fieldwork by the author. In Cheyenne, evidentials are part of the illocutionary mood paradigm. Based on this grammatical system and crosslinguistic data in the literature, I propose a new theory of evidentials. I argue that evidentials contribute not-at-issue content, which cannot be directly challenged or denied. This content is added directly to the common ground, without negotiation. In contrast, at-issue content, the main point of a sentence, is proposed to the common ground, up for negotiation. This analysis of evidentials implies a more articulated theory of assertion and other speech acts. In particular, I argue that all speech acts are structured into three components: presentation of the at-issue proposition, a non-negotiable update that individual, modal, and propositional discourse referents. The distinction between atissue and not-at-issue information comes out as an instance of grammatical centering in the modal domain. The presentation of the at-issue proposition is modeled as the introduction of a propositional discourse referent. This predicts that only the at-issue proposition can be referred to in subsequent discourse, and the non-challengeability of the evidential falls out as a special case of propositional anaphora. The proposed analysis can be extended to evidentials and related phenomena in other languages. While there are real crosslinguistic differences in the behavior of evidentials, there are also many commonalities. The proposed analysis captures the properties that all evidential systems share, but is fine-grained enough to account for variation. On this analysis, evidentials crosslinguistically form a natural semantic class. directly restricts the common ground, and a negotiable update that imposes structure on the common ground. I implement this proposal in an update semantics with
BibTeX: @phdthesis{Murray2010, author = {Sarah E. Murray}, title = {Evidentiality and the Structure of Speech Acts}, school = {Rutgers University}, year = {2010}, url = {https://ling.rutgers.edu/images/dissertations/Murray-Thesis_Rutgers-2010.pdf} }
Murray, S.E.	Varieties of update [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2014	Semantics and Pragmatics Vol. 7	article	DOI
Abstract: This paper discusses three potential varieties of update: updates to the common ground, structuring updates, and updates that introduce discourse referents. These different types of update are used to model different aspects of natural language phenomena. Not-at-issue information directly updates the common ground. The illocutionary mood of a sentence structures the context. Other updates introduce discourse referents of various types, including propositional discourse referents for at-issue information. Distinguishing these types of update allows a unified treatment of a broad range of phenomena, including the grammatical evidentials found in Cheyenne (Algonquian) as well as English evidential parentheticals, appositives, and mood marking. An update semantics that can formalize all of these varieties of update is given, integrating the different kinds of semantic contributions into a single representation of meaning.
BibTeX: @article{Murray2014, author = {Sarah E. Murray}, title = {Varieties of update}, journal = {Semantics and Pragmatics}, publisher = {Linguistic Society of America}, year = {2014}, volume = {7}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.3765/sp.7.2} }
Onea, E. and Volodina, A.	Between Specification and Explanation: About a German Discourse Particle [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2011	International Review of Pragmatics Vol. 3, pp. 3-32	article	DOI
Abstract: Th is paper provides a unified semantic and discourse pragmatic analysis of the German particle nämlich , traditionally described as having a specificational and an explanative reading. Our claim is that nämlich is a discourse marker which signals that the expression it is attached to is a short (elliptic) answer to a salient implicit question about the previous utterance. We show how both the explanative and the specifi cational reading can be derived from this more general semantic contribution. In addition we discuss some cross linguistic consequences of our analysis.
BibTeX: @article{Onea2011, author = {Edgar Onea and Anna Volodina}, title = {Between Specification and Explanation: About a German Discourse Particle}, journal = {International Review of Pragmatics}, year = {2011}, volume = {3}, pages = {3-32}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1163/187731011X561036} }
Overfelt, J.	Having space to sprout: Failed sprouting in sub-clausal ellipses [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2021	Proceedings of WCCFL 39	inproceedings	URL
Abstract: This paper presents and accounts for an under-explored constraint against sprouting from sub-clausal ellipses. The account begins fromthe claimthat antecedents for ellipsis can in principle be recovered from the syntax or an implicit question meaning. Different kinds of ellipses, however, may be subject to limits on this flexibility for antecedent recovery. I argue that these limits can conspire to block the licensing of ellipsis, specifically in the case of sprouting from an elided predicate. Moreover, I propose that these are expected consequences of the model of focus-based semantic redundancy that is found in Rooth 1992a,b. The remainder of the paper explores the diagnostic utility of sprouting in determining the size of an elided constituent. Case studies from Stripping in English and Modal Complement Ellipsis in Catalan and French are presented.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Overfelt2021, author = {Jason Overfelt}, title = {Having space to sprout: Failed sprouting in sub-clausal ellipses}, booktitle = {Proceedings of WCCFL 39}, year = {2021}, url = {https://lingbuzz.net/lingbuzz/006056/current.pdf?_s=7DbGNZWb22vuQVzl} }
Peterson, T.R.G.	Epistemic Modality and Evidentiality in Gitksan at the Semantics-Pragmatics Interface [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2010	School: University of British Columbia	phdthesis	URL
Abstract: The aim of this dissertation is to provide an empirically driven, theoretically informed investigation of how speakers of Gitksan, a Tsimshianic language spoken in the northwest coast of Canada, express knowledge about the world around them. There are three main goals that motivate this investigation, summarized below: (i.) To provide the first detailed description of the evidential and modal system in Gitksan. (ii.) To provide a formal semantic and pragmatic account of this system that adequately explains the meanings of the modals and evidentials, as well as how they are used in discourse. (iii.) To identify and examine the specific properties the Gitksan evidential/modal system brings to bear on current theories of semantics and pragmatics, as well as the consequences this analysis has on the study of modality and evidentiality cross-linguistically. In addition to documenting the evidential and modal meanings in Gitksan, I test and work through a variety of theoretical tools from the literature designed to investigate evidentiality and modality in a language. This begins by determining what level of meaning the individual evidentials in Gitksan operate on. The current state of research into the connection between evidentiality and epistemic modality has identified two different types of evidentials defined by the level of meaning they operate on: propositional and illocutionary evidentials. These two types correspond to a distinction between modal evidentials and non-modal evidentials respectively. I show that Gitksan has both modal and non-evidentials. This leads to an analysis where the Gitksan modal evidentials are treated as a specialized type of epistemic modals, and the non-modal evidentials are sentential force specifiers. I also identify various features of the evidential system that bring specific issues to bear upon current theories of the semantics and pragmatics of modality. This has four outcomes: first, I present a novel analysis of variable modal force in modals with fixed quantification: variable modal force in Gitksan modal evidentials is determined by the ordering source. Secondly, I discuss Conjectural Questions: when a modal evidential is added to a question it reduces the interrogative force of the question. This follows from the modal semantics of evidentials. Thirdly, I introduce the notion of Pragmatic blocking: modal and non-modal evidentials interact in discourse contexts, and implicate a speaker’s attitude towards the evidence they have for a proposition. And fourthly, I develop the first formal analysis of mirativity and non-literal uses of evidentials, analyzing them both as cases of conversational implicature.
BibTeX: @phdthesis{Peterson2010, author = {Tyler Roy Gösta Peterson}, title = {Epistemic Modality and Evidentiality in Gitksan at the Semantics-Pragmatics Interface}, school = {University of British Columbia}, year = {2010}, url = {https://semanticsarchive.net/Archive/jAyZDdkM/Dissertation-filed.pdf} }
Potts, C.	The Logic of Conventional Implicatures [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2005		book
Abstract: This book revives the study of conventional implicatures in natural language semantics. The label ‘conventional implicature’ dates back to H. Paul Grice’s early work on the foundations of linguistic semantics and pragmatics. Since its introduction, it has seen many diverse applications, but it has never enjoyed a stable place in linguistic theory. This book seeks to change that. Grice’s original discussion is used as a key into two presently understudied areas of natural language: supplements (appositives, parentheticals, utterance modifiers) and expressives (epithets, honorifics). The account of both depends on a multidimensional theory in which individual sentences can express more than one independent meaning. The theory is logically and intuitively compositional, and it minimally extends a familiar kind of intensional logic, thereby providing an adaptable tool for general semantic analysis. The result is a linguistic theory that is accessible not only to linguists of all stripes, but also to philosophers of language, logicians, and computer scientists who have linguistic applications in mind.
BibTeX: @book{Potts2005, author = {Christopher Potts}, title = {The Logic of Conventional Implicatures}, publisher = {Oxford University Press}, year = {2005} }
Potts, C.	The Expressive Dimension [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2007	Theoretical Linguistics Vol. 33, pp. 165-198	article	DOI
Abstract: Expressives like damn and bastard have, when uttered, an immediate and powerful impact on the context. They are performative, often destructively so. They are revealing of the perspective from which the utterance is made, and they can have a dramatic impact on how current and future utterances are perceived. This, despite the fact that speakers are invariably hard-pressed to articulate what they mean. I develop a general theory of these volatile, indispensable meanings. The theory is built around a class of expressive indices. These determine the expressive setting of the context of interpretation. Expressives morphemes act on that context, actively changing its expressive setting. The theory is multidimensional in the sense that descriptives and expressives are fundamentally different but receive a unified logical treatment.
BibTeX: @article{Potts2007, author = {Chris Potts}, title = {The Expressive Dimension}, journal = {Theoretical Linguistics}, year = {2007}, volume = {33}, pages = {165-198}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1515/TL.2007.011} }
De Kuthy, K., Ziai, R. and Meurers, D.	Focus Annotation of Task-based Data: A Comparison of Expert and Crowd-Sourced Annotation in a Reading and Comprehension Corpus [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2016	Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC'16), pp. 3928-3935	inproceedings	URL
Abstract: While the formal pragmatic concepts in information structure, such as the focus of an utterance, are precisely defined in theoretical linguistics and potentially very useful in conceptual and practical terms, it has turned out to be difficult to reliably annotate such notions in corpus data (Ritz et al., 2008; Calhoun et al., 2010). We present a large-scale focus annotation effort designed to overcome this problem. Our annotation study is based on the tasked-based corpus CREG (Ott et al., 2012), which consists of answers to explicitly given reading comprehension questions. We compare focus annotation by trained annotators with a crowd-sourcing setup making use of untrained native speakers. Given the task context and an annotation process incrementally making the question form and answer type explicit, the trained annotators reach substantial agreement for focus annotation. Interestingly, the crowd-sourcing setup also supports high-quality annotation – for specific subtypes of data. Finally, we turn to the question whether the relevance of focus annotation can be extrinsically evaluated. We show that automatic short-answer assessment significantly improves for focus annotated data. The focus annotated CREG corpus is freely available and constitutes the largest such resource for German.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Reading3928, author = {Kordula De Kuthy and Ramon Ziai and Detmar Meurers}, title = {Focus Annotation of Task-based Data: A Comparison of Expert and Crowd-Sourced Annotation in a Reading and Comprehension Corpus}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC'16)}, year = {2016}, pages = {3928--3935}, url = {https://aclanthology.org/L16-1621} }
Recht, T.	Verb-Initial Clauses in Ancient Greek Prose: A Discourse-Pragmatic Study [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2015	School: University of California, Berkeley	phdthesis	URL
Abstract: Word order in Ancient Greek, a ‘free word order’ or discourse-configurational language, depends largely on pragmatic and information-structural factors, but the precise nature of these factors is still a matter of some controversy (Dik 1995, Matić 2003). In this dissertation, I examine the set of constructions in which a verb appears in first position in its clause, and consider the conditions under which such constructions appear and the roles they play in structuring Greek discourse. I distinguish between topical and focal initial verbs, and show that the former class (which are the main concern of the study) in fact occur as part of larger units definable in terms of both prosody and pragmatics. The function of such units, I argue, is to mark specific kinds of transitions between the implicit questions that structure discourse (Questions Under Discussion [QUDs], Roberts 1996). I describe and categorize the types of QUD transitions marked by verb-initial units in a corpus of five fifth-and fourth-century Greek prose authors, and relate these to transitions marked by other classes of constructions, including a newly identified contrastive-topic construction. My account improves on preceding models by unifying a number of phenomena previously treated as disparate. It also represents the first large-scale application of the QUD model to real discourse.
BibTeX: @phdthesis{Recht2015, author = {Tom Recht}, title = {Verb-Initial Clauses in Ancient Greek Prose: A Discourse-Pragmatic Study}, school = {University of California, Berkeley}, year = {2015}, url = {https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/etd/ucb/text/Recht_berkeley_0028E_15275.pdf} }
Renans, A.	Projective meaning of only – evidence from Polish [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2011	Proceedings of the ESSLLI 2011 Workshop on Projective Meaning	inproceedings	URL
Abstract: The status of the prejacent of only is still a topic of linguistic debates. The reported experiments and observations are supposed to provide new data and evidence. Section 2 discusses existing theories of the meaning of only. Section 3 reports on the experiments on the semantics of tylko, which is assumed to be a Polish counterpart of English only. The experiments show clearly that the prejacent of tylko projects out of negation (section 3.1) and counterfactual if-clauses (section 3.2.) However, tylko does not project so easily out of indicative if-clauses (section 3.3.) In section 4, I discuss some additional tests which are designed to detect presupposition and I implement them to sentences with tylko. It occurs that the results of some of them in particular the Hey, wait a minute-test (section 4.1) and Suspending the Prejacent (section 4.2) suggest that the prejacent of tylko behaves in a similar way to assertion. Moreover, I show that the semantics of only differs from the semantics of tylko.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Renans2011, author = {Agata Renans}, title = {Projective meaning of only – evidence from Polish}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the ESSLLI 2011 Workshop on Projective Meaning}, year = {2011}, url = {https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.646.290&rep=rep1&type=pdf} }
Riester, A. and Baumann, S.	Focus Triggers and Focus Types from a Corpus Perspective [BibTeX]	2013	Dialogue & Discourse Vol. 4(2), pp. 215-248	article	DOI
BibTeX: @article{Riester2013, author = {Arndt Riester and Stefan Baumann}, title = {Focus Triggers and Focus Types from a Corpus Perspective}, journal = {Dialogue & Discourse}, publisher = {University of Illinois Libraries}, year = {2013}, volume = {4}, number = {2}, pages = {215--248}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.5087/dad.2013.210} }
Riester, A.	Analyzing questions under discussion and information structure in a Balinese narrative [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2015	Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Information Structure ofAustronesian Languages	inproceedings	URL
Abstract: I argue against the skepticism recently expressed by Matić and Wedgwood (2013) regarding the possibility of defining a cross-linguistic category of focus. I sketch an interpretation-based and cross-linguistically applicable method of information-structural analysis, which makes use of Questions under Discussion. The method is demonstrated on a Balinese narrative text.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Riester2015, author = {Arndt Riester}, title = {Analyzing questions under discussion and information structure in a Balinese narrative}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Information Structure ofAustronesian Languages}, year = {2015}, url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10108/84506} }
Riester, A. and Piontek, J.	Anarchy in the NP. When new nouns get deaccented and given nouns don't [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2015	Lingua Vol. 165, pp. 230-253	article	DOI
Abstract: We investigate a semantic–pragmatic hypothesis (relative givenness, Wagner, 2006) on an annotated corpus of German speech data. We show that nominal deaccentuation in an [A N] (adjective–noun) combination neither requires the givenness of N nor the availability of a different [A′ N] sequence in the overt discourse context but results from the fact that a referentially distinct alternative is either explicitly or implicitly under discussion. If no such alternative is under discussion, given nouns typically receive main prominence.
BibTeX: @article{Riester2015a, author = {Arndt Riester and Jörn Piontek}, title = {Anarchy in the NP. When new nouns get deaccented and given nouns don't}, journal = {Lingua}, publisher = {Elsevier}, year = {2015}, volume = {165}, pages = {230--253}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2015.03.006} }
Riester, A., Brunetti, L. and De Kuthy, K.	Annotation guidelines for Questions under Discussion and information structure [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2018	Information structure in lesser-described languages. Studies in prosody and syntax, pp. 403-443	incollection	URL
Abstract: We present a detailed manual for a pragmatic, i.e. meaning-based, method for the information-structural analysis of naturally attested data, which is built on the idea that for any assertion contained in a text (or transcript of spoken discourse) there is an implicit Question under Discussion (QUD) that determines which parts of the assertion are focused or backgrounded (and which ones are non-at-issue, i.e. not part of the assertion at all). We formulate a number of constraints, which allow the analyst/annotator to derive QUDs from the previous or upcoming discourse context, and demonstrate the method using corpus examples (of French, German, and English). Since we avoid making reference to language-specific morphosyntactic or prosodic properties, we claim that our method is also cross-linguistically applicable beyond our example languages.
BibTeX: @incollection{Riester2018, author = {Riester, Arndt and Brunetti, Lisa and De Kuthy, Kordula}, title = {Annotation guidelines for Questions under Discussion and information structure}, booktitle = {Information structure in lesser-described languages. Studies in prosody and syntax}, publisher = {John Benjamins}, year = {2018}, pages = {403--443}, url = {https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01794160/document} }
Riester, A. and Shiohara, A.	Information structure in Sumbawa: A QUD analysis. [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2018	(21)Studies in Diversity Linguistics	incollection	URL
Abstract: This paper describes the constituent ordering and other basic morphosyntactic properties of Sumbawa and their relation to information structure. Our study is based on conversational corpus data and makes use of a novel method of information-structural discourse analysis, which is based on the reconstruction of implicit questions under discussion (QUDs).
BibTeX: @incollection{Riester2018a, author = {Riester, Arndt and Shiohara, Asako}, title = {Information structure in Sumbawa: A QUD analysis.}, booktitle = {Studies in Diversity Linguistics}, publisher = {Language Science Press}, year = {2018}, number = {21}, url = {https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/28281/1001681.pdf?sequence=1#page=293} }
Roberts, C.	Focus, the Flow of Information, and Universal Grammar [BibTeX]	1998	The Limits of Syntax, pp. 109-160	incollection	URL
BibTeX: @incollection{Roberts1998, author = {Craige Roberts}, title = {Focus, the Flow of Information, and Universal Grammar}, booktitle = {The Limits of Syntax}, publisher = {Academic Press}, year = {1998}, pages = {109-160}, url = {https://www.asc.ohio-state.edu/roberts.21/focusflow.pdf} }
Roberts, C.	Topics [Comment] [BibTeX]	2012	Semantics: An International Handbook of Natural Language Meaning	incollection	URL
Comment: Reprinted in Portner, Maienborn, and von Heusinger (eds.) (2019) Semantics: Sentence and Information Structure, Berlin/Boston: Mouton de Gruyter, 381-412.
BibTeX: @incollection{Roberts2012c, author = {Craige Roberts}, title = {Topics}, booktitle = {Semantics: An International Handbook of Natural Language Meaning}, publisher = {Mouton de Gruyter}, year = {2012}, url = {https://www.asc.ohio-state.edu/roberts.21/Roberts.Topics.pdf} }
Roberts, C.	Speech acts in discourse context [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2018	New Work on Speech Acts, pp. 317-359	incollection
Abstract: There is evidence for the existence across all known languages of three basic clause types: declarative, interrogative, and imperative. Though this distinction in grammatical mood may be reflected in quite different ways (syntactic, morphological, lexical, etc.) in different languages, cross-linguistically we find a robust generalization: The choice of mood in a clausal utterance is reflected in a default correlation to one of the three basic types of move in a language game: making an assertion (declarative), posing a question (interrogative), or proposing to one’s addressee(s) the adoption of a goal (imperative). This is in striking contrast to the lack of regular correlation between the conventional content of constituents and speech act types in the tradition of Austin and Searle. This paper sketches an approach to speech acts in which mood does not semantically determine illocutionary force. In a clause, the conventional content of mood determines the semantic type of the clause, and, given the nature of discourse, that type most naturally lends itself to serving as a particular type of speech act, i.e. to serving as one of the three basic types of language game moves. The type of semantics for grammatical mood that I assume is illustrated here with the imperative. As in earlier work, I take discourse to be a certain type of language game, with felicity tightly constrained by the goals and intentions of the interlocutors and, in particular, by the question under discussion. This pragmatic framework, together with the proposed semantics of mood, permits us to explain the kinds of contextual factors that lead to the attested Searlean interpretations of particular speech acts, and is compatible with a simple account of performatives in which performativity is epiphenomenal on the semantics of the predicates in question when used with a 1st person subject.
BibTeX: @incollection{Roberts2018, author = {Craige Roberts}, title = {Speech acts in discourse context}, booktitle = {New Work on Speech Acts}, publisher = {Oxford University Press}, year = {2018}, pages = {317-359} }
Rojas-Esponada, T.	Patterns and Symmetries for Discourse Particles [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2015	School: Stanford University	phdthesis	URL
Abstract: Discourse particles provide important signals in conversation, by helping speakers and hearers coordinate on the course of an interaction. Therefore, a precise understanding of discourse particles will provide new insights into the pragmatics of conversation. In this thesis, I will present a framework based on questions under discussion that allows us to capture the key information-theoretic structures in conversation that seem to affect the use of discourse particles: the presence or absence of presuppositions, the issues guiding a conversation, and how interlocutors move between these issues. I present two case studies of German discourse particles that highlight central aspects of the QUD framework: überhaupt and doch. These raise a challenge found in particle systems in many languages: lexicalized focus. Many languages possess particles that can occur with or without focus, and the meanings associated with the unfocused and focused variants are often very different. Since intonation can have discourse-managing functions similar to that of discourse particles, the effect of having or lacking focus marking directly on a particle is different from the effect of focus on regular content words. I will identify patterns that allow us to systematically distinguish the meanings of focused and unfocused particles in a focused/unfocused pair. This serves as a stepping stone towards understanding the interplay of grammar, intonation, and interaction.
BibTeX: @phdthesis{RojasEsponada2015, author = {Tania Rojas-Esponada}, title = {Patterns and Symmetries for Discourse Particles}, school = {Stanford University}, year = {2015}, url = {https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/patterns-symmetries-discourse-particles/docview/2459631050/se-2?accountid=9783} }
Rojas-Esponda, T.	A discourse model for überhaupt [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2014	Semantics and Pragmatics Vol. 7	article	DOI
Abstract: The German particle "überhaupt" exhibits a variety of uses with seemingly unrelated meanings. Correspondingly, only partial and non-unified theoretical accounts have been proposed. I show how the various intuitions and ostensibly different meanings can be derived from a unified characterization of "überhaupt" as a move to a higher-level question under discussion. The account explains how "überhaupt" could correspond to a single word in German, and it provides additional support for questions under discussion as an important aspect of contexts.
BibTeX: @article{RojasEsponda2014, author = {Tania Rojas-Esponda}, title = {A discourse model for überhaupt}, journal = {Semantics and Pragmatics}, publisher = {Linguistic Society of America}, year = {2014}, volume = {7}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.3765/sp.7.1} }
Rosemeyer, M.	Las funciones discursivas de las interrogativas parciales en castellano: [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2018	Romanistisches Jahrbuch Vol. 69(1), pp. 275-314	article	DOI URL
Abstract: This paper develops a corpus-driven analysis of wh-interrogatives in Castilian Spanish. Combining methods from variationist and interactional linguistics, it is demonstrated that both the distribution of the variants and their discourse functions can be described in terms of the degree of mental accessibility of the interrogative proposition (P) and the referent of the interrogative pronoun/ adverb (X). In contexts in which both P and X have a low degree of accessibility, wh-interrogatives establish a new Question under Discussion; in contexts in which P has a high and X a low degree of accessibility, wh-interrogatives are used to elaborate a current Question under Discussion; in contexts in which both P and X have a high degree of accessibility, wh-interrogatives are used to repeat, clarify or challenge a previous utterance. Given that the wh-interrogative variants differ in their restrictions regarding the accessibility of P and X, they typically also fulfil different discourse functions. The analysis moreover demonstrates that due to these functional differences, the type of response to the interrogatives produced by the listeners differs systematically depending on the wh-interrogative type.
BibTeX: @article{Rosemeyer2018, author = {Malte Rosemeyer}, title = {Las funciones discursivas de las interrogativas parciales en castellano:}, journal = {Romanistisches Jahrbuch}, year = {2018}, volume = {69}, number = {1}, pages = {275--314}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1515/roja-2018-0017}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1515/roja-2018-0017} }
Rosemeyer, M.	Brazilian Portuguese in-situ wh-interrogatives between rhetoric and change [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2019	Glossa: a journal of general linguistics Vol. 4(1), pp. 80	article	DOI
Abstract: Previous studies of the historical development of partial interrogatives have postulated a change from contexts in which the proposition of the interrogative has been explicitly mentioned in the previous discourse, to contexts in which the proposition is discourse-new. The present paper explores whether the historical increase in the usage frequency of Brazilian Portuguese in-situ wh-interrogatives represents the same process. Using data from a large corpus of BP theater texts dated between the 19th and 21st century, several discourse functions of InSituWh are identified, the most frequent of which are cataphorical questions, which serve to either open up a question unrelated to the current question under discussion, or raise further questions about the current question under discussion, and rhetorical questions, which question the validity or relevance of a previously mentioned proposition. Rhetorical questions typically do not trigger a response by the interlocutor and are used with psychological verbs and morphologically simple interrogative pronouns. A statistical analysis of the diachronic distribution of InSituWh in the data reveals an increase in the usage frequency of InSituWh especially in contexts in which the proposition is discourse-new. However, the results also indicate that this increase is not due to a grammatical change of InSituWh but rather reflects a consolidation of the rhetorical question function of InSituWh within the genre of theater plays.
BibTeX: @article{Rosemeyer2019, author = {Malte Rosemeyer}, title = {Brazilian Portuguese in-situ wh-interrogatives between rhetoric and change}, journal = {Glossa: a journal of general linguistics}, publisher = {Open Library of the Humanities}, year = {2019}, volume = {4}, number = {1}, pages = {80}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.900} }
Shirref, P.	What We Can Do with Words:Essays on the Relationship Between Linguistic andNon-Linguistic Theorizing [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2017	School: University of Michigan	phdthesis	URL
Abstract: The essays that make up my dissertation share a methodological approach that aims to explore the philosophical implications of linguists' accounts of ordinary language use. In particular, all of them focus on epistemic natural language and the implications that linguists' accounts of such language has for epistemology. The first essay focuses on the debate about the norms that govern assertion and shows the ways in which research on natural language evidentiality has direct bearing. This essay uses existing cross-linguistic data about assertions in Quechua and Cheyenne to argue that assertions and the norms that govern them are more complex than allowed for in extant views. What makes Quechua and Cheyenne important is that they allow speakers to assert sentences the content of which they do not believe, or even believe to be false, as long as the sentence contains the right evidential marker. This is a problem for the current theories as they all take belief in the proposition being expressed as a minimal requirement for a speaker to felicitously assert. Given the data, I argue that we should see evidential markers as modifying the norm that is in place governing felicity of the current content. I go on to present three implementations of a context-sensitive norm and argue that only the ones that are evidence-based or completely contextual can properly capture the entire set of linguistic data. In the second essay I argue that epistemic uses of 'should' can be modelling using the standard Kratzerian modal canon. In Kratzer's system, modals induce quantification over some partially ordered, restricted class of worlds. The relevant partially ordered, restricted class of worlds is generally fixed by two ingredients: a modal base and an ordering source. Modelling epistemic uses of 'should' requires us to rethink and expand what has traditionally been thought of as making up an epistemic modal base. Traditionally it has been thought that epistemic modal bases just include information about probabilities but this thought needs to be updated in order to bring epistemic 'should' into the fold. I argue that there are good theoretical reasons for having as uniform a semantics as possible then show that the context-sensitive semantic model that I develop meets all empirical demands. I end the essay by arguing that this updated way of thinking about epistemic modals bases has implications for epistemology. The final essay outlines the broad type of methodological approach mentioned above that guides the research throughout the dissertation. In it, I argue that the results of linguistics' theorizing about semantics, especially within the epistemic domain, ought to be seen as an accurate guide to reality. Looking to the way that language evolves over time and what it takes for information to become encoded into language is what drives this result. Buttressing the evolutionary explanation with results from the Condorcet Jury Theorem gives us more reason to believe that language is an accurate, albeit defeasible, guide to reality. If these results hold, they not only have broad implications for how we ought to be conducting our epistemological theorizing but our philosophical theorizing in general.
BibTeX: @phdthesis{Shirref2017, author = {Patrick Shirref}, title = {What We Can Do with Words:Essays on the Relationship Between Linguistic andNon-Linguistic Theorizing}, school = {University of Michigan}, year = {2017}, url = {https://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/140955} }
Simin, X.	A QUD Account For The Mandarin Discourse Marker ‘zaishuo’ [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2021	ICU Working Papers in Linguistics(ICUWPL)	inproceedings	DOI
Abstract: The Mandarin discourse marker zaishuo is often considered to connect two utterances that may not have obvious logic connection and help the listener to identify the relevance between these two utterances and the topic (Zheng 2001, Zhou 2005, Lou & Leng 2016). I argue that zaishuo must connect two reasons that can provide an answer to a why-question, which the QUD (Question Under Discussion, Roberts 2012) or a question that is relevant to the QUD. In addition, the use of zaishuo indicates a potential disagreement between the discourse participants. The current analysis has the advantage of being more precise, which can distinguish the use of zaishuo from other regular conjunctions such as erqie ‘and’.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Simin2021, author = {Simin, Xiong}, title = {A QUD Account For The Mandarin Discourse Marker ‘zaishuo’}, booktitle = {ICU Working Papers in Linguistics(ICUWPL)}, year = {2021}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.34577/00004838} }
Simons, M., Tonhauser, J., Beaver, D. and Roberts, C.	What projects and why [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2010	Vol. 20Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT), pp. 309-327	inproceedings	URL
Abstract: Projection is widely used as a diagnostic for presupposition, but many expression types yield projection even though they do not have standard properties of presupposition, for example appositives, expressives, and honorifics (Potts 2005). While it is possible to analyze projection piecemeal, clearly a unitary explanation is to be preferred. Yet we show that standard explanations of projective behavior (common ground based theories, anaphoric theories, and multi-dimensional theories) do not extend to the full range of triggers. Instead, we propose an alternative explanation based on the following claim, which is intended to apply to all content which occurs in embedded contexts: Meanings project IFF they are not at-issue, where at-issueness is defined in terms of the Roberts’ (1996) discourse theory. Thus, and despite their apparent heterogeneity, projective meaning triggers emerge as a natural class on the basis of the not at-issue status of their projective inference.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Simons2010, author = {Mandy Simons and Judith Tonhauser and David Beaver and Craige Roberts}, title = {What projects and why}, booktitle = {Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT)}, publisher = {CLC Publications}, year = {2010}, volume = {20}, pages = {309-327}, url = {https://judith-tonhauser.github.io/files/simons-etal-2010.pdf} }
Smirnova, A.	Evidentiality and mood: Grammatical expressions of epistemic modality in Bulgarian [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2011	School: The Ohio State University	phdthesis	URL
Abstract: This dissertation is a case study of two grammatical categories, evidentiality and mood. I argue that evidentiality and mood are grammatical expressions of epistemic modality and have an epistemic modal component as part of their meanings. While the empirical foundation for this work is data from Bulgarian, my analysis has a number of empirical and theoretical consequences for the previous work on evidentiality and mood in the formal semantics literature. Evidentiality is traditionally analyzed as a grammatical category that encodes information sources (Aikhenvald 2004). I show that the Bulgarian evidential has richer meaning: not only does it express information source, but also it has a temporal and a modal component. With respect to the information source, the Bulgarian evidential is compatible with a variety of evidential meanings, i.e. direct, inferential, and reportative, as long as the speaker has concrete perceivable evidence (as opposed to evidence based on a mental activity). With respect to epistemic commitment, the construction has different felicity conditions depending on the context: the speaker must be committed to the truth of the proposition in the scope of the evidential in a direct/inferential evidential context, but not in a reportative context. Finally, the distribution of the evidential is sensitive to the temporal relations specified in the context. In the previous literature, the Bulgarian evidential is analyzed as encoding indirect sources of information; no mention is made of its temporal meaning (Izvorski 1997, Sauerland and Schenner 2007). I propose a uniform semantic analysis of the Bulgarian evidential, which incorporates both a temporal and a modal component, and accounts for the full range of evidential meanings. The central aspect of the analysis is the assumption that the proposition in the scope of the evidential is evaluated with respect to different sets of worlds, depending on the discourse context: the belief worlds of the speaker in inferential/direct evidential contexts, and the belief worlds of the original reporter in reportative contexts. My analysis of mood explains the distribution of the subjunctive and the indicative in Bulgarian as being dependent on the epistemic commitment of the attitude holder (cf. Giannakidou 1998). Previous analyses attribute mood distribution to semantic properties of the selecting verb alone (cf. Farkas 1992, Villalta 2008). These analyses cannot be extended to Bulgarian, where the distribution of mood is sensitive not only to the semantics of matrix verbs, but also to context. This is particularly clear in cases when the same verb can select both the subjunctive and the indicative, and the choice of mood correlates with the attitude holder’s epistemic commitment. The indicative is selected iff the attitude holder is strongly committed to the truth/falsity of the proposition expressed by the complement clause. The subjunctive is selected iff the attitude holder has a weaker epistemic commitment. My formal analysis uses the tools from the analysis of modals (Kratzer 1979) and specifies how the meaning of the matrix propositional attitude verb interacts with the meaning of mood in the embedded clause. This is the first formal semantic analysis of mood in Bulgarian.
BibTeX: @phdthesis{Smirnova2011, author = {Anastasia Smirnova}, title = {Evidentiality and mood: Grammatical expressions of epistemic modality in Bulgarian}, school = {The Ohio State University}, year = {2011}, url = {http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1306917645} }
Smirnova, A.	Evidentiality in Bulgarian: Epistemic modality and temporal relations [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2012	Journal of Semantics Vol. 30(4), pp. 479-532	article	DOI
Abstract: This article presents a formal semantic analysis of the Bulgarian evidential. The analysis is motivated by a number of facts that have gone unnoticed in the literature on evidentiality in Bulgarian and which cannot be explained by previous analyses (Izvorski 1997; Sauerland & Schenner 2007; Koev 2011). First, I show that the same evidential construction in Bulgarian can express direct, reportative and inferential information sources. These data challenge the current analysis of the Bulgarian evidential as indirect (Izvorski 1997), and show that in some languages a single evidential morpheme can express both direct and indirect information sources (contra Willett 1988; Aikhenvald 2004). Second, I show that the Bulgarian evidential expresses temporal meaning: it functions as a relative tense. Finally, while I retain the insights of Izvorski’s modal analysis, I substantially change the modal component to account for reports of false information in reportative contexts (I analyze them as de dicto reports). Ultimately, I argue that the evidential construction in Bulgarian has a tripartite meaning: it encodes information source, temporality and epistemic modality. This article contributes to the understanding of the semantics of evidentials cross-linguistically (cf. Faller 2002; McCready & Ogata 2007; Matthewson et al. 2007) by showing how the interaction of the modal and the temporal component affects the distribution and meaning of evidentials in discourse.
BibTeX: @article{Smirnova2012, author = {Anastasia Smirnova}, title = {Evidentiality in Bulgarian: Epistemic modality and temporal relations}, journal = {Journal of Semantics}, year = {2012}, volume = {30}, number = {4}, pages = {479-532}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1093/jos/ffs017} }
Smith, E.A., Castroviejo, E. and Mayol, L.	Cross-Linguistic Experimental Evidence Distinguishing the Role of Context in Disputes over Taste and Possibility [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2015	Context 2015: Modeling and Using Context	inproceedings	DOI
Abstract: One might think that Sam’s utterance in (1) is a subjective one, essentially expressing that he personally finds the cake tasty, in which case one would not expect significant meaning differences between (1) and a similar utterance where the subjectivity is made explicit, such as (3).
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Smith2015, author = {E. Allyn Smith and Elena Castroviejo and Laia Mayol}, title = {Cross-Linguistic Experimental Evidence Distinguishing the Role of Context in Disputes over Taste and Possibility}, booktitle = {Context 2015: Modeling and Using Context}, publisher = {Springer International Publishing}, year = {2015}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25591-0} }
Soares, E.C.	Anaphors in discourse : anaphoric subjects in Brazilian Portuguese [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2017	School: Université Sorbonne Paris Cité	phdthesis	URL
Abstract: The present dissertation is concerned with the use and interpretation of null and pronominal subjects in Brazilian Portuguese. This investigation examines these phenomena in an attempt to disentangle the semantic and discursive factors that can be relevant for choice between these anaphoric expressions in Brazilian Portuguese and the way in which this choice is articulated with the general theory of anaphora resolution. The starting point of this dissertation was the research looking into null and overt subjects from the perspective of Generative Grammar, specially the Parametric Theory. Throughout the present work, however, the analyses proposed in this perspective were shown not to account for the data at stake. The generalization that poor verbal morphology is directly related to the absence or reduced frequency of null subjects, for example, is challenged through experimental data and an investigation of the relative frequency of null subjects across discourse persons in corpora. An alternative explanation presented in the previous literature, namely the importance of the antecedents’ features of Animacy and Specificity, seems to better account for the attested distribution. However, this explanation is not sufficient for understanding the choice between null and overt subjects in Brazilian Portuguese, since the number of animate and specific null subjects is still relatively higher than in languages with obligatory expression of subjects. Therefore, it is argued that discourse factors seem to play a crucial role in the use of null and overt subjects in Brazilian Portuguese. The main factors identified here are Obviousness and Contrast. The first is a standard feature in the literature about anaphora resolution (expressed by a variety of terms, such as Salience, Familiarity, Accessibility, etc.), which is part of the reverse mapping hypothesis according to which the more obvious the subject is, the less explicit the co-referential form is allowed to be. The second factor, Contrast, is the main finding of the present dissertation: as is the case for other levels of linguistic analyses and other phenomena in language, the choice of anaphoric expression in Brazilian Portuguese seems to be driven by efficiency. In the present case, this means that, when the backgrounded information and the asserted (focused) in- formation in an utterance contrast the most, it is more likely that a null subject will be used. The design of a grammar that deals with these multiple features is sketched, specifically, a multi-layered scalar probabilistic grammar is proposed, whose semantic and discourse constraints act in parallel through a probabilistic mapping. It is, thus, shown that null subjects are likely in discursive co- reference, since in these contexts their antecedents are more obvious and the focused information contrasts the most with the background. An apparent counter-example to the proposal sketched here is analyzed: the generic interpretation of null subjects. However, it is shown that the same semantic constraints cross-linguistically applied to other generic constructions can produce generic null subjects in Brazilian Portuguese, given the failure to be grounded predicted by the approach proposed here. Finally, on-line evidence for the analysis of the use and interpretation of null and pronominal subjects is provided. The results found in three eye-tracking while reading experiments provide striking evidence in favor of the proposal put forward here, according to which null and overt subjects and their interpretation can be accounted for in terms of constraints on interpretation rather than licensing.
BibTeX: @phdthesis{Soares2017, author = {Eduardo Correa Soares}, title = {Anaphors in discourse : anaphoric subjects in Brazilian Portuguese}, school = {Université Sorbonne Paris Cité}, year = {2017}, url = {https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01984623} }
Song, Y., Jimenez, A.H. and Scontras, G.	Cross-linguistic scope ambiguity: An investigation of English, Spanish, and Mandarin [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2021	Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America Vol. 6(1), pp. 572	article	DOI
Abstract: Faced with a sentence like Every horse didn't jump over the fence as a description of a scenario in which one out of two horses jumped, adults readily endorse the utterance as a good description, while children overwhelmingly reject it. However, systematic changes to the task setup lead to marked increases in children's endorsement rates (Musolino & Lidz 2006; Viau et al. 2010). Savinelli et al.(2017) use a computational cognitive model of utterance endorsement in truth-value judgment tasks to analytically demonstrate that both children and adults' interpretation behavior is affected by pragmatic manipulations. We test a clear prediction of these models: manipulating the conversational goal (or Question Under Discussion) should lead to clear effects on utterance endorsement. In addition to investigating the predictions for English, we also investigate Spanish and Mandarin, where the status of the relevant ambiguity may be less clear.
BibTeX: @article{Song2021, author = {Yongjia Song and Abimael Hernandez Jimenez and Gregory Scontras}, title = {Cross-linguistic scope ambiguity: An investigation of English, Spanish, and Mandarin}, journal = {Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America}, publisher = {Linguistic Society of America}, year = {2021}, volume = {6}, number = {1}, pages = {572}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.3765/plsa.v6i1.4992} }
Surányi, B.	Focus in Focus [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2018	Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, pp. 243-262	incollection	DOI
Abstract: Pars pro toto (PPT) focus movements pose an apparent challenge to algorithms that map specific syntactic positions to particular information structural functions. PPT focus movements bring a phrase into a syntactic configuration that is canonically associated with focus interpretation, yet a distinct constituent, one that properly contains the fronted phrase in the original structure, is assigned focus interpretation. The present paper demonstrates that this mismatch is only apparent in Hungarian, a language that is generally considered discourse configurational with respect to focus. In particular, it is argued that pars pro toto focus fronting in Hungarian concurrently involves both broad focus on a constituent that originally contains the fronted phrase and narrow focus associated with the phrase undergoing movement. The proposed nested focus analysis thus upholds the viability of syntactic configuration based approaches to information structure in discourse-configurational languages. It is also shown based on a careful examination of the interpretation of the construction that the exhaustivity of focus and the existential inference associated with its background, two interpretive properties that are often taken to go hand in hand, are in fact dissociable from each other.
BibTeX: @incollection{Suranyi2018, author = {Balázs Surányi}, title = {Focus in Focus}, booktitle = {Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory}, publisher = {Springer}, year = {2018}, pages = {243--262}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90710-9_16} }
Tawilapakul, U.	Counter-Expectation in Thai [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2013	School: University of York	phdthesis	URL
Abstract: This study is dedicated to the reinvestigation of the role of the particle lɛɛw45 in Thai. It raises speculations over the conventional claims according to which lɛɛw45 plays a role in temporality as a perfective aspect marker (Kanchanawan, 1978; Boonyapatipark, 1983; among others). The reappraisal of the role of lɛɛw45 in this study, which is based on the use of it in present day Thai, offers an argument against these claims. The addition of lɛɛw45 to a sentence is not mainly aimed at temporal effects. When it appears in a sentence, lɛɛw45 does not necessarily denote the perfective aspect of the event. Moreover, it can be omitted in the sentence in which perfectivity is already inherited through the lexical aspect of the verb and the temporal structure of the predicate. Lɛɛw45 in fact plays a role as a marker of counter-expectation. It represents a previous expectation about the subject and its opposition to the asserted proposition. Examining the nature of lɛɛw45's implications thoroughly, the study has found that even though the definiteness of the subject behaves like a standard presupposition, the implicated expectation does not project in all cases. This is revealed in the results from Tonhauser et al.’s (2013) projection tests. Lɛɛw45 is context-sensitive and imposes a Strong Contextual Felicity constraint. Nonetheless, it is actually not bound to Obligatory Local Effect and its presence in the context where the projective contents are not entailed is also felicitous. Counter-expectations also involve coherence and relevance, which are determined by the interrelationship between common ground, context, and focus. The asserted proposition is required to correspond to the common ground knowledge and context designated by the expected proposition. Additionally, the expression and interpretation of lɛɛw45's counter-expectations rely on the association of lɛɛw45 with the focused element in its scope. In a particular case, the common ground knowledge, context, and focus can be identified with the assistance of Question Under Discussion (Roberts 1996, 2012). The mechanism also accounts for the production and interpretation processes proceeding in accordance with the conversational moves.
BibTeX: @phdthesis{Tawilapakul2013, author = {Tawilapakul, Upsorn}, title = {Counter-Expectation in Thai}, school = {University of York}, year = {2013}, url = {https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/9560/} }
Thomas, G.	Nominal tense and temporal implicatures: evidence from Mbyá [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2014	Natural Language Semantics Vol. 22(4), pp. 357-412	article	DOI
Abstract: In this paper, I discuss the distribution and the interpretation of the temporal suffix -kue in Mbyá, a Guaraní language that is closely related to Paraguayan Guaraní. This suffix is attested both inside noun phrases and inside clauses. Interestingly, its nominal uses give rise to inferences that are unattested in its clausal uses. These inferences were first identified in Paraguayan Guaraní by Tonhauser (PhD thesis, 2006; Language 83:831–869, 2007), who called them the existence property and the change of state property. Tonhauser further argued that these properties are built into the lexical entry of the nominal temporal marker -kue. By contrast, I argue that -kue denotes a relative past tense both in its nominal and clausal uses, and that the existence and change of state properties are pragmatic inferences that arise from the interaction of the literal meaning of -kue with general constraints on the interpretation of noun phrases, notably constraints on the topicality of the time of evaluation of noun phrases. This allows me to maintain a uniform analysis of -kue across its nominal uses and its clausal uses. The analysis of -kue in Mbyá is relevant to a number of current debates on the expression of tense crosslinguistically. Firstly, the existence of relative tenses has sometimes been called into question. Klein (Time in language, 1994) notably argues that relative tenses are actually combinations of tense with the perfect aspect. Others have argued that there exist true relative tenses in certain languages (see e.g. Bohnemeyer, NLLT 1–38, 2013). I argue that facts of Mbyá support the latter view. Secondly, Klein (1994) famously defined tenses as relations between topic times and the time of utterance. I argue, on the other hand, that relative tenses only denote relations between times, and that the topicality or non-topicality of their temporal arguments depends on their context of use, including their syntactic environment. Thirdly, this paper contributes to debates on the nature and reality of nominal tenses (see Nordlinger and Sadler, Language 80:776–806, 2004; Lecarme, In: Binnick (ed) The Oxford handbook of tense and aspect, 2012), by arguing that tense in Mbyá is a genuinely nominal category, in the sense that temporal functional projections are part of the extended projection of the noun phrase.
BibTeX: @article{Thomas2014, author = {Guillaume Thomas}, title = {Nominal tense and temporal implicatures: evidence from Mbyá}, journal = {Natural Language Semantics}, publisher = {Springer}, year = {2014}, volume = {22}, number = {4}, pages = {357--412}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s11050-014-9108-2} }
Tonhauser, J.	Diagnosing (not-) at-issue content [BibTeX]	2012	Proceedings of Semantics of Under-represented Languages of the Americas (SULA) Vol. 6, pp. 239-254	article	URL
BibTeX: @article{Tonhauser2012, author = {Judith Tonhauser}, title = {Diagnosing (not-) at-issue content}, journal = {Proceedings of Semantics of Under-represented Languages of the Americas (SULA)}, year = {2012}, volume = {6}, pages = {239--254}, url = {https://www.asc.ohio-state.edu/tonhauser.1/papers/tonhauser-SULA6.pdf} }
Tonhauser, J.	Contrastive topics in Paraguayan and Guaraní discourse [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2012	Proceedings of SALT 22	inproceedings	DOI
Abstract: The empirical basis of current formal semantic/pragmatic analyses of utterances containing contrastive topics are languages in which the expression that denotes the contrastive topic is marked prosodically, morphologically or syntactically, such as English, German, Korean, Japanese or Hungarian (e.g. Jackendoff 1972; Szabolcsi 1981; Roberts 1998; Büring 1997, 2003; Lee 1999). Such analyses do not extend to Paraguayan Guaraní, a language in which neither prosody, nor word order, nor the contrastive topic clitic =katu identify the contrastive topic. This article develops a formal pragmatic analysis of contrastive topic utterances in Paraguayan Guaraní and explores cross-linguistic similarities and differences in contrastive topic utterances.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Tonhauser2012a, author = {Judith Tonhauser}, title = {Contrastive topics in Paraguayan and Guaraní discourse}, booktitle = {Proceedings of SALT 22}, year = {2012}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.3765/salt.v22i0.2631} }
Tonhauser, J., Beaver, D., Simons, M. and Roberts, C.	Towards a Taxonomy of Projective Content [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2013	Language Vol. 89(1), pp. 66-109	article	URL
Abstract: Projective contents, which include presuppositional inferences and Potts’ (2005) conventional implicatures, are meanings which are projected when a construction is embedded, as standardly identified by the “Family of Sentences” diagnostic (e.g. Chierchia and McConnell-Ginet 1990). This paper establishes distinctions among projective contents on the basis of a series of diagnostics (including a variant of the Family of Sentences diagnostic) that can be used with linguistically untrained consultants. This methodological advance allows validity of generalizations to be examined cross-linguistically. We apply the diagnostics in two languages, focussing on Paraguayan Guaraní (Tupí-Guaraní), and comparing the results to those for English. Our study of Paraguayan Guaraní is the first systematic exploration of projective content in a language other than English. Based on the application of our diagnostics to a wide range of constructions, three meaningful subclasses of projective contents emerge. The resulting taxonomy of projective content has strong implications for contemporary theories of projection (e.g. Karttunen 1974; Heim 1983; van der Sandt 1992; Potts 2005; Schlenker 2009), which were developed for the projective properties of subclasses and fail to generalize to the full set of projective contents.
BibTeX: @article{Tonhauser2013, author = {Judith Tonhauser and David Beaver and Mandy Simons and Craige Roberts}, title = {Towards a Taxonomy of Projective Content}, journal = {Language}, year = {2013}, volume = {89}, number = {1}, pages = {66-109}, url = {https://ling.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/horn/Tonhauser_etal_2011.pdf} }
Umbach, C.	Strategies of additivity: German additive noch compared to auch [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2012	Lingua Vol. 122(15), pp. 1843-1863	article	DOI
Abstract: The German particle noch (‘still’) has an additive reading which differs significantly in meaning and use from the standard German additive particle auch (‘also’/‘too’). In the paper, a semantic and pragmatic analysis will be presented focusing on three core characteristics distinguishing additive noch from auch: (i) alignment with discourse time, (ii) association with deaccented focus, and (iii) continuation of the question-under-discussion. The analysis will be based on the notion of focus alternatives and make use of a question-based discourse model.
BibTeX: @article{Umbach2012, author = {Carla Umbach}, title = {Strategies of additivity: German additive noch compared to auch}, journal = {Lingua}, publisher = {Elsevier}, year = {2012}, volume = {122}, number = {15}, pages = {1843--1863}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2012.01.011} }
Viesel, Y.	Discourse structure and syntactic embedding : the German discourse particle 'ja' [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2015	Proceedings of the 20th Amsterdam Colloquium, pp. 418-427	inproceedings	URL
Abstract: German discourse particles (DiPs) do not add truth-conditionally relevant meaning but are elements of speaker attitude and indicate a relation between the information in their scope (p) and another piece of information (q) in the context. The DiP ‘ja’ (literally ‘yes’) was claimed to be felicitous with a proposition p that the speaker believes common to both speaker and hearer, or immediately verifiable. However, formalizations modeling this into the use conditions of ‘ja’ fall short on the DiP's discourse function, which is to indicate that p is not used to address the current Question under Discussion but stands in a relation to q (pRq), where q is the information that the speaker makes another context update, pRq is intuitively explanatory, and p is not necessarily known to anyone but the speaker. Regarding prerequisite grammatical properties of the DiP's host constructions, data show that ‘ja’ is not restricted to assertive, root-like environments and defies predictions about not being able to appear in the scope of descriptive operators. Instead the data suggest that the DiP's licitness in surprising positions depends on information-structural factors.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Viesel2015, author = {Viesel, Yvonne}, title = {Discourse structure and syntactic embedding : the German discourse particle 'ja'}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 20th Amsterdam Colloquium}, year = {2015}, pages = {418--427}, url = {http://semanticsarchive.net/Archive/mVkOTk2N/AC2015-proceedings.pdf} }
Viesel, Y.	Discourse particles “embedded”: German ja in adjectival phrases [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2016	Discourse Particles: Formal Approaches to their Syntax and Semantics, pp. 173-202	incollection	DOI URL
Abstract: The article is concerned with the German discourse particle ja (lit. ‘yes’) in adjectival phrases. Data shows that ja may appear embedded even if its host construction does not comprise an independent illocutionary force domain, e.g. in restrictive adnominal modifiers in indefinite DPs with specific interpretation. As in main clauses, ja signals that information in its scope supplements related information, thus being indirectly Relevant to the Question under Discussion. Corresponding to this discourse function, corpus evidence suggests that the particle requires a clear indication of focus in its scope even in non-restrictive modifiers which are associated with root properties.
BibTeX: @incollection{Viesel2016, author = {Yvonne Viesel}, title = {Discourse particles “embedded”: German ja in adjectival phrases}, booktitle = {Discourse Particles: Formal Approaches to their Syntax and Semantics}, publisher = {De Gruyter}, year = {2016}, pages = {173--202}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110497151-008}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110497151-008} }
Xu, H.	The experiential aspect of Mandarin Chinese (-guo): Semantics and pragmatics [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2019	Lingua Vol. 229	article	DOI
Abstract: The study of the Chinese experiential aspect expressed by -guo is an important research topic in both Chinese theoretical linguistics and the semantics-pragmatics interface more broadly. Previous studies propose that the semantics of -guo has the property of what is called repeatability, and/or discontinuity. In this article, I show that previous theories do not adequately explain the distributional pattern of -guo. The semantics of -guo therefore remains unclear. Based on a comprehensive observation of the experiential aspect marker -guo, I propose that (1) -guo semantically is an existential quantifier indicating a non-empty set of a type of eventuality in a certain time frame which is presupposed to be before a reference time, and with this new proposal, the so-called perfective -guo described by previous studies can be explained in the same framework, and thus the two -guos can be unified; (2) the discontinuity property can be accounted for from a pragmatic perspective under the notion of Question Under Discussion (Roberts, 1996).
BibTeX: @article{Xu2019, author = {Hongzhi Xu}, title = {The experiential aspect of Mandarin Chinese (-guo): Semantics and pragmatics}, journal = {Lingua}, year = {2019}, volume = {229}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2019.102714} }
Yan, M. and Calhoun, S.	Priming Effects of Focus in Mandarin Chinese [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2019	Frontiers in Psychology	article	DOI
Abstract: Psycholinguistic research has long established that focus-marked words have a processing advantage over other words in an utterance, e.g., they are recognized more quickly and remembered better. More recently, studies have shown that listeners infer contextual alternatives to a focused word in a spoken utterance, when marked with a contrastive accent, even when the alternatives are not explicitly mentioned in the discourse. This has been shown by strengthened priming of contextual alternatives to the word, but not other non-contrastive semantic associates, when it is contrastively accented, e.g., after hearing “The customer opened the window," salesman is strongly primed, but not product. This is consistent with Rooth's (1992) theory that focus-marking signals the presence of alternatives to the focus. However, almost all of the research carried out in this area has been on Germanic languages. Further, most of this work has looked only at one kind of focus-marking, by contrastive accenting (prosody). This paper reports on a cross-modal lexical priming study in Mandarin Chinese, looking at whether focus-marking heightens activation, i.e., priming, of words and their alternatives. Two kinds of focus-marking were investigated: prosodic and syntactic. Prosodic prominence is an important means of focus-marking in Chinese, however, it is realized through pitch range expansion, rather than accenting. The results showed that focused words, as well as their alternatives, were primed when the subject prime word carried contrastive prosodic prominence. Syntactic focus-marking, however, did not enhance priming of focused words or their alternatives. Non-contrastive semantic associates were not primed with either kind of focus-marking. These results extend previous findings on focus and alternative priming for the first time to Chinese. They also suggest that the processing advantages of focus, including priming alternatives, are particularly related to prosodic prominence, at least in Chinese and Germanic languages. This research sheds light on what linguistic mechanisms listeners use to identify important information, generate alternatives, and understand implicature necessary for successful communication.
BibTeX: @article{Yan2019, author = {Mengzhu Yan and Sasha Calhoun}, title = {Priming Effects of Focus in Mandarin Chinese}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, year = {2019}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01985} }
Yasavul, M.	Prosody Of Focus and Contrastive Topic in K’iche [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2013	Vol. 60Ohio State Working Papers in Linguistics, pp. 129-160	inproceedings	URL
Abstract: This paper discusses the findings of an experimental study about the prosodic encoding of focus and contrastive topic in K'iche'. The central question being addressed is whether prosody plays a role in distinguishing string-identical sentences where the pre-predicate expression can be interpreted as being focused or contrastively topicalized depending on context. I present a production experiment designed to identify whether such sentences differ in their prosodic properties as has been impressionistically suggested in the literature (Larsen 1988; Aissen 1992; Can Pixabaj & England 2011). The overall strategy of the experiment was to obtain naturally occurring data from native speakers of K'iche' by having them repeat target sentences they heard in conversations. The phonological analysis showed that content words in K'iche' have a rising pitch movement, a finding which is in line with Nielsen (2005). The acoustic analyses of several variables yielded a significant effect of condition only in the range of the F0 rise associated with focused and contrastively topicalized expressions. However, the difference across conditions is only 6 Hz which may not be perceivable by listeners.
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Yasavul2013, author = {Murat Yasavul}, title = {Prosody Of Focus and Contrastive Topic in K’iche}, booktitle = {Ohio State Working Papers in Linguistics}, year = {2013}, volume = {60}, pages = {129-160}, url = {http://hdl.handle.net/1811/80993} }
Yuan, M. and Hara, Y.	Questioning and Asserting at the Same Time: the L% Tone in A-not-A questions [BibTeX]	2013	Proceedings of the 19th Amsterdam Colloquium	inproceedings	URL
BibTeX: @inproceedings{Yuan2013, author = {Mengxi Yuan and Yurie Hara}, title = {Questioning and Asserting at the Same Time: the L% Tone in A-not-A questions}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 19th Amsterdam Colloquium}, year = {2013}, url = {https://archive.illc.uva.nl/AC/AC2013/uploaded_files/inlineitem/36_Yuan_Hara.pdf} }
Zanuttini, R. and Portner, P.	Exclamative clauses: At the syntax-semantics interface [BibTeX]	2003	Language Vol. 79(1), pp. 39-81	article	DOI
BibTeX: @article{Zanuttini2003, author = {Raffaella Zanuttini and Paul Portner}, title = {Exclamative clauses: At the syntax-semantics interface}, journal = {Language}, year = {2003}, volume = {79}, number = {1}, pages = {39-81}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2003.0105} }
Zeevat, H. and Jasinskaja, E.	'And' as an Additive Particle [BibTeX]	2007	Language, Representation and Reasoning. Memorial volume to Isabel Gómez Txurruka, pp. 315-340	incollection	URL
BibTeX: @incollection{Zeevat2007a, author = {Henk Zeevat and Ekaterina Jasinskaja}, title = {'And' as an Additive Particle}, booktitle = {Language, Representation and Reasoning. Memorial volume to Isabel Gómez Txurruka}, publisher = {University of the Basque Country Press}, year = {2007}, pages = {315-340}, url = {https://idsl1.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/sites/IDSLI/dozentenseiten/Jasinskaja/zeevat_jasinskaja_2007.pdf} }
Zeevat, H. and Jasinskaja, E.	Explaining Additive, Adversative and Contrast Marking in Russian and English [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2008	Revue de Sémantique et Pragmatique Vol. 24, pp. 65-91	article	URL
Abstract: The functional space covered by the conjunctions and and but in English is divided between three conjunctions in Russian: i ‘and,’ a ‘and, but’ and no ‘but.’ We analyse these markers as topic management devices, i.e. they impose different kinds of constraints on the discourse topics (questions under discussion) addressed by their conjuncts. This paper gives a detailed review of the observations from descriptive literature on the distribution of these markers in light of the proposed underlying classification of questions, and shows that our theoretical approach provides a uniform explanation to a large variety of their uses, as well as to the existing equivalences and nonequivalences between the Russian and the English counterparts.
BibTeX: @article{Zeevat2008, author = {Henk Zeevat and Ekaterina Jasinskaja}, title = {Explaining Additive, Adversative and Contrast Marking in Russian and English}, journal = {Revue de Sémantique et Pragmatique}, year = {2008}, volume = {24}, pages = {65-91}, url = {https://dslc.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/sites/dslc/katja_files/jasinskaja_zeevat_2008.pdf} }
Zimmermann, M.	Discourse Particles [Abstract] [Comment] [BibTeX]	2011	Semantics: An International Handbook of Natural Language Meaning	incollection	URL
Abstract: The article gives an overview of the distribution and interpretation of discourse particles. Semantically, these expressions contribute only to the expressive content of an utterance, and not to its core propositional content. The expressive nature of discourse particles accounts for their taking scope over question and imperative operators and over structured propositions, setting them apart from modal auxiliaries and adverbs. Discourse particles are distinguished from other discourse-structuring elements by their specifi c semantic function of conveying information concerning the epistemic states of discourse participants. A discussion of German discourse particles identifi es three semantic core functions: (i.) the proposition expressed is marked as part of the Common Ground (ja); (ii.) it is marked as not activated with one of the discourse participants (doch); (iii.) the commitment to the proposition expressed is weakened (wohl). Further topics discussed are the interaction of discourse-particles with sentence types, secondary pragmatic effects (politeness, surprise, indirect speech acts), and the feasibility of a surface-compositional analysis and its problems. The article concludes with a brief cross-linguistic survey that shows that discourse particles are in languages across the world.
Comment: Check the page numbers in the physical copy!
BibTeX: @incollection{Zimmermann2011, author = {Malte Zimmermann}, title = {Discourse Particles}, booktitle = {Semantics: An International Handbook of Natural Language Meaning}, publisher = {Mouton de Gruyter}, year = {2011}, url = {https://www.ling.uni-potsdam.de/ zimmermann/papers/MZ2011-Particles-HSK.pdf} }
Zimmermann, M.	Was glaubt EDE, wer der Mörder ist? On D-trees, Embedded Foci, and Indirect Scope Marking [Abstract] [BibTeX]	2014	Approaches to Meaning: Composition, Values, and Interpretation, pp. 306-340	incollection	DOI
Abstract: Malte Zimmermann takes a closer look at embedded foci elaborating on the theory of question under discussion and draws a connection to wh-scope-marking constructions. The idea of "Was glaubt EDE, wer der Mörder ist? on D-trees, Embedded Foci, and Indirect Scope Marking" is that the wh-scope-marking construction grammaticalizes part of a pattern of two questions where one question is a subquestion of the other. Analogously, embedded foci are licensed if there is a question denotation in the discourse that is related to a subquestion asking for the embedded focus. The paper shows that the structure of the discourse has an impact on the nesting of new information.
BibTeX: @incollection{Zimmermann2014, author = {Malte Zimmermann}, title = {Was glaubt EDE, wer der Mörder ist? On D-trees, Embedded Foci, and Indirect Scope Marking}, booktitle = {Approaches to Meaning: Composition, Values, and Interpretation}, publisher = {Brill}, year = {2014}, pages = {306-340}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004279377_014} }