On Information Structure, Meaning and Form: Generalizations across Languages (Linguistik Aktuell Linguistics Today)

581 Pages·2007·5.27 MB·English

by  Kerstin Schwabe

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OnInformationStructure,MeaningandForm
LinguistikAktuell/LinguisticsToday
LinguistikAktuell/LinguisticsToday(LA)providesaplatformfororiginalmonographstudies
intosynchronicanddiachroniclinguistics.StudiesinLAconfrontempiricalandtheoretical
problemsasthesearecurrentlydiscussedinsyntax,semantics,morphology,phonology,and
systematicpragmaticswiththeaimtoestablishrobustempiricalgeneralizationswithina
universalisticperspective.
SeriesEditors
WernerAbraham EllyvanGelderen
UniversityofVienna ArizonaStateUniversity
AdvisoryEditorialBoard
CedricBoeckx IanRoberts
HarvardUniversity CambridgeUniversity
GuglielmoCinque KenSafir
UniversityofVenice RutgersUniversity,NewBrunswickNJ
GüntherGrewendorf LisadeMenaTravis
J.W.Goethe-University,Frankfurt McGillUniversity
LilianeHaegeman StenVikner
UniversityofLille,France UniversityofAarhus
HubertHaider C.Jan-WouterZwart
UniversityofSalzburg UniversityofGroningen
ChristerPlatzack
UniversityofLund
Volume100
OnInformationStructure,MeaningandForm:
Generalizationsacrosslanguages
EditedbyKerstinSchwabeandSusanneWinkler
On Information Structure,
Meaning and Form
Generalizations across languages
Editedby
Kerstin Schwabe
ZAS,Berlin
Susanne Winkler
UniversityofTübingen
JohnBenjaminsPublishingCompany
Amsterdam(cid:2)/(cid:2)Philadelphia
TM Thepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirements
8
ofAmericanNationalStandardforInformationSciences–Permanence
ofPaperforPrintedLibraryMaterials,ansiz39.48-1984.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Oninformationstructure,meaningandform:generalizationsacrosslanguages
/editedbyKerstinSchwabeandSusanneWinkler.
p. cm.(LinguistikAktuell/LinguisticsToday,issn0166–0829;v.
100)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindexes.
1.Grammar,Comparativeandgeneral--Topicandcomment.2.
Focus(Linguistics)3.Pragmatics.I.Schwabe,Kerstin.II.Winkler,
Susanne,1960-
P298.O494 2006
415--dc22 2006047968
isbn9789027233646(Hb;alk.paper)
©2007–JohnBenjaminsB.V.
Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedinanyform,byprint,photoprint,microfilm,or
anyothermeans,withoutwrittenpermissionfromthepublisher.
JohnBenjaminsPublishingCo.·P.O.Box36224·1020meAmsterdam·TheNetherlands
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Table of contents
Acknowledgments ix
On information structure, meaning and form
Generalizations across languages 1
Kerstin Schwabe, Susanne Winkler
Part I. Information structure and grammar
Generalizations across languages
Phases and the typology of focus constructions 33
Hans Bernhard Drubig
1.1 Topics and topicalization across languages
Th e prosody of topicalization 69
Caroline Féry
Types of topics in German and Italian 87
Mara Frascarelli and Roland Hinterhölzl
Th e Korean particle nun, the English fall-rise accent,
and thetic/categorical judge ments 117
Jorunn Hetland
Topicalization in Malagasy, Tagalog and Tsou 129
Paul Law
On the discourse confi gurationality of West Germanic 155
Laszlo Molnárfi
Topic, focus and default vs. contrastive accent
Typological diff erences with respect to discourse prominence 183
Werner Abraham
vi On Information Structure, Meaning and Form: Generalizations across languages
1.2 Focus and focus movement across languages
Identifying inferences in focus 207
Dan Wedgwood
Focus structure and the interpretation of multiple questions 229
Balázs Surányi
Focus structure, movement to spec-Foc and syntactic processing 255
Carsten Breul
Focus and marked positions for VP adverbs 275
Edward Göbbel
Ellipsis and inversion: A synchronic and diachronic perspective 301
Remus Gergel, Kirsten Gengel and Susanne Winkler
Th e subject/object asymmetry in Northern Sotho 323
Sabine Zerbian
Wide focus interpretation with fronted focus exponents in Czech 347
Denisa Lenertová and Uwe Junghanns
In place – out of place? Focus in Hausa 365
Katharina Hartmann and Malte Zimmermann
Part II. Information structure and pragmatics
Clause structure and context
Instructions for interpretation as separate performatives 407
Paul Portner
Interrogative complement clauses 427
Kerstin Schwabe
Th e syntax and pragmatics of embedded yes/no questions 447
Regine Eckardt
Toward a uniform analysis of short answers and gapping 467
Ingo Reich
Alternative Semantics for defi nite NPs 485
Klaus von Heusinger
Table of contents vii
Bare plurals as topics in English and Italian 509
Ariel Cohen
References 523
Name Index 559
Subject Index 563

Acknowledgments
This volume emerged out of a long-term collaboration of the contributors and a joint
workshop of the ZAS and the University of Tübingen on the topic of Information Struc-
ture and the Architecture of Grammar: A Typological Perspective held at the University of
Tübingen in February 2004. The workshop was organized in honor of Bernie Drubig’s
65th birthday, a fact which influenced both, the topic of the workshop and the structure
of the present volume. We thank the participants of this workshop for their fruitful dis-
cussions of the ideas and issues presented in this volume and the authors of this volume
for their contributions and their participation in the internal reviewing process.
We would further like to gratefully acknowledge the rewarding dialogues on infor-
mation structure with the following linguists: Cornelia Endriss, Werner Frey, Manfred
Krifka, Andreas Haida, Jutta Hartmann, Valéria Molnár, Ewald Lang, and Luis López.
A special thank you goes to the series editors of this book, Elly van Gelderen and
Werner Abraham for discussing the concept of the book and their ongoing support
in bringing it to its conclusion. We also want to thank Kees Vaes for his professional
assistance and invaluable help in carrying out this project. Particular gratitude goes to
Kirsten Brock for copy-editing substantial parts of this text and to Mechthild Bernhard
and Paul Doherty for their help in putting this volume together.
We also thank the German Science Foundation (DFG) for supporting the work-
shops and the research of the editors presented in this book..