Cover not available

In:Empirical Studies of the Construction of Discourse
Edited by Óscar Loureda, Inés Recio Fernández, Laura Nadal and Adriana Cruz
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 305] 2019
► pp. 195–228

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Chapter 7
Processing patterns of focusing in Spanish

 | Heidelberg University
 | Heidelberg University
Published online: 6 August 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.305.07cru
Abstract
Different kinds of focusing relations that encode different assumptions are expected to exhibit different kinds of processing patterns (Loureda et al. 2015; Lowder and Gordon 2015; Nadal et al. 2016). In this paper, we present findings of an eye tracking study that takes under consideration two different types of focusing relations in pragmatic scales in Spanish (Rooth 1985; König 1991; Rooth 1992; Kenesei 2006; Portolés 2007, 2009): (a1) unmarked identificational foci that have primarily identificational value, (a2) unmarked restrictive foci that present a conceptual restriction, and (b) contrastive foci, marked by the focus operator incluso (‘even’) that due to its procedural meaning restricts the inferential processes in communication (Karttunen and Peters 1979; Blakemore 1987, 1992; Portolés 2007). According to the findings, this paper claims that (1) utterances with unmarked and marked focus do not present different global processing efforts (utterances with marked focus have more encoded information but the focus operator generates a control and acceleration effect), (2) utterances with unmarked and marked foci present different intern processing patterns: unmarked (conceptual) and marked (procedural) patterns and (3) that different processing patterns lead to different inferential processes.
Article outline
  • 1.Different kinds of focusing
  • 2.Experimental design
    • 2.1Independent variables, areas of interest and hypotheses
    • 2.2Dependent variables
    • 2.3Participants, apparatus and procedure
    • 2.4Stimuli
    • 2.5Statistical treatment
  • 3.Results and discussion
    • 3.1Global comparison
    • 3.2Comparison of focusing areas
    • 3.3The comprehension of the contrastive implicatures of unmarked and marked focus structures
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
References (85)
References
Almela, Ramón, Pascual Cantos, Álvaro Sanchez, Ramón Sarmiento, and Moisés Almela. 2005. Frecuencias del español. Diccionario y estudios léxicos y morfológicos. Madrid: Universitas.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Andorno, Cecilia. 2000. Focalizzatori fra connessione e messa a fuoco: il punto di vista delle varietà di apprendimento. Milano: Francoangeli.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bates, Douglas, Martin Maechler, Ben Bolker, and Steve Walker. 2015. “Fitting Linear Mixed-Effects Models Using lme4.” Journal of Statistical Software 67 (1): 1–48. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beaver, David, and Brady Clark. 2008. Sense and Sensitivity. How Focus Determines Meaning. Oxford: Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blakemore, Diane. 1987. Semantic constraints on relevance. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1992. Understanding Utterances. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1997. “Non-truth conditional meaning.” Linguistische Berichte 8: 92–102.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Briz, Antonio, Salvador Pons, and José Portolés (dirs.), “Diccionario de partículas discursivas del español (DPDE)”, Accessed October 15th, 2018. [online: [URL]].
Carston, Robyn. 2002. “Linguistic meaning, communicated meaning and cognitive pragmatics.” Mind & Language 17 (1–2): 127–148. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. Thoughts and utterances: The pragmatics of explicit communication. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016. “The heterogeneity of procedural meaning.” Lingua 175: 154–166. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clark, Herbert H. 2007. Using language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clifton, Charles, Adrian Staub, and Keith Rayner. 2007. “Eye movements in reading words and sentences.” In Eye movements: A window on mind and brain, ed. by Roger P. G. van Gompel, Martin H. Fischer, Wayne S. Murray, and Robin L. Hill. Oxford: Elsevier. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cruz, Adriana. “Focus particles and information structure in Spanish: an experimental study on cognitive processes of pragmatic scales.” Ongoing PhD diss., University of Heidelberg.
Dik, Simon C. 1989. The Theory of Functional Grammar. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
É. Kiss, Katalin. 1998. “Identificational focus versus information focus.” Language: 245–273. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Escandell Vidal, María Victoria. 2004. Fundamentos de semántica composicional. Barcelona: Ariel.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Escandell Vidal, María Victoria, and Manuel Leonetti. 1997. “Categorías funcionales y semántica procedimental.” In Actas del Congreso Internacional de Gramática, Universidad de la Laguna, 363–378. Madrid: Ed. Clásicas.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. “La expresión del verum focus en español.” Español Actual 92: 11–46.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. “On the rigidity of procedural meaning.” In Procedural Meaning, ed. by María Victoria Escandell Vidal, and Manuel Leonetti, 81–102. Bingley: Emerald.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fahrmeier, Ludwig, Thomas Kneib, Stefan Lang, and Brian Marx. 2013. Regression. Models, Methods and Applications. Berlin: Springer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Flórez, Óscar. 1995. “La posición del adjetivo: una perspectiva pragmática.” Dicenda: Cuadernos de filología hispánica 13: 163–174.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grice, H. Paul. 1975. “Logic and conversation.” In Syntax and Semantics, ed. by Peter Cole, and Jerry L. Morgan, 41–58. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gries, Stefan Th. 2008. Statistik für Sprachwissenschaftler. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gundel, Jeanette. 1999. “On different kind of focus.” In Focus: Linguistic, Cognitive and Computational Perspectives, ed. by Peter Bosch, and Rob van der Sandt, 293–305. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gundel, Jeanette, and Thorstein Fretheim. 2004. “Topic and focus.” In The Handbook of Pragmatics, ed. by Laurence Horn, and Gregory Ward, 175–197. Malden/Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gutiérrez Ordóñez, Salvador. 2000 [1997]. Temas, remas, focos, tópicos y comentarios. Madrid: Arco Libros.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Höhle, Tilmann. 1988. “Verum focus.” Sprache und Pragmatik 5: 1–7.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Holm, Sture. 1979. “A simple sequentially rejective multiple test procedure.” Scandinavian Journal of Statistics 6 (2): 65–70.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Holmqvist, Kenneth, Marcus Nyström, Richard Andersson, Richard Dewhurst, Halszka Jarodzka, and Joost Van de Weijer. 2011. Eye tracking: A comprehensive guide to methods and measures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hyönä, Jukka, Robert F. Lorch, and Johanna Kaakinen. 2002. “Individual Differences in Reading to Summarize Expository Text: Evidence From Eye Fixations Patterns.” Journal of Educational Psychology 94 (1): 44–55. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hyönä, Jukka, Robert F. Lorch, and Mike Rinck. 2003. “Eye movement measures to study global text processing.” In The Mind’s Eye: Cognitive and Applied Aspects of Eye Movement Research, ed. by Ralph Radach, Jukka Hyönä, Heiner Deubel, 313–334. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jackendoff, Ray. 1972. Semantic Interpretation in Generative Grammar. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jacobs, Joachim. 1983. Fokus und Skalen: Zur Syntax und Semantik der Gradpartikeln im Deutschen. Vol. 138. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Just, Marcel, Patricia Carpenter, and Jacqueline Woolley. 1982. “Paradigms and processes in reading comprehension.” Journal of experimental psychology: General 111 (2): 228–238. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Karttunen, Lauri, and Stanley Peters. 1979. “Conventional implicatures.” In Syntax and Semantics II, Presupposition, ed. by Choon-Kyu Oh, and David A. Dinneen, 1–56. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Keating, Gregory D. 2014. “Eye-Tracking with Text.” In Research Methods in Second Language Psycholinguistics, ed. by Jill Jegerski, and Bill VanPatten, 69–92. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Keating, Gregory D., and Jill Jegerski. 2014. “Experimental Designs in Sentence Processing Research. A Methodological Review and User’s Guide.” Studies in Second Language Acquisition: 1–32.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kenesei, István. 1984. “On what really figures in a nonconfigurational language.” Groninger Arbeiten zur germanistischen Linguistik 24: 28–54.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1986. “On the logic of word order in Hungarian.” In Topic, Focus, and Configurationality, ed. by Werner Abraham, and Sjaak de Mey, 143–159. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. “Focus as Identification.” In The Architecture of Focus, ed. by Valéria Molnár, and Susanne Winkler, 137–168. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
König, Ekkehard. 1991. The Meaning of Focus Particles: A Comparative Perspective. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Krifka, Manfred. 2008. “Basic Notions of Information Structure.” Acta Linguistica Hungarica 55: 243–276. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Krifka, Manfred, and Renate Musan. 2012. “Information Structure: Overview and Linguistic Issues.” In The Expression of Information Structure, ed. by Manfred Krifka, and Renate Musan, 1–44. Berlin, Boston: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lambrecht, Knud. 1994. Information Structure and Sentence Form. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leonetti, Manuel, and María Victoria Escandell Vidal. 2004. “Semántica conceptual / Semántica procedimental.” In Actas del V Congreso de Lingüística General, vol. II, ed. by Milka Villayandre Llamazares, 1727–1738. Madrid: Arco Libros.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Loureda, Óscar, Adriana Cruz, and DPKog. 2013. “Aproximación experimental sobre los costes de procesamiento de las partículas focales del español también e incluso.” Cuadernos AISPI. Estudios de lenguas y literaturas ibéricas e iberoamericanas, AISPI (Associazione Ispanisti Italiani): 75–98.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Loureda, Óscar, Adriana Cruz, Inés Recio, and Cristina Villalba. 2014. “Incluso en posición pre- y postfocal: un análisis experimental de los costes de procesamiento de escalas pragmáticas.” Revista Española de Lingüística 44(2): 95–130.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Loureda, Óscar, Adriana Cruz, Martha Rudka, Laura Nadal, Inés Recio, and Margarita Borreguero Zuloaga. 2015. “Focus Particles in Information Processing: An Experimental Study on Pragmatic Scales with Spanisch incluso.” Focus particles in the Romance and Germanic languages. Experimental and corpus-based approaches, Linguistik online 71 (2):129–151.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lowder, Matthew W., and Peter C. Gordon. 2015. “Focus takes time: structural effects on reading.” Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 22: 1733–1738. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mata, André, Elise J. Percy, and Steven J. Sherman. 2014. “Adjective-noun order as representational structure: Native-language grammar influences perception of similarity and recognition memory.” Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 21: 193–197. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Murillo, Silvia. 2010. “Los marcadores del discurso y su semántica.” In Los estudios sobre marcadores del discurso en español, hoy, ed. by Óscar Loureda, and Esperanza Acín, 241–280. Madrid: Arco Libros.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nadal, Laura, Adriana Cruz, Inés Recio, and Óscar Loureda. 2016. “El significado procedimental y las partículas discursivas del español: una aproximación experimental.” Revista Signos 49 (1) (4–6): 52–77. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Paterson, Kevin B., Simon P. Liversedge, Ruth Filik, Barbara Juhasz, Sarah White, and Keith Rayner. 2007. “Focus identification during sentence comprehension: Evidence from eye movements.” The Quartely Journal of Experimental Psychology 60 (10): 1423–1445. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pickering, Martin J., Matthew J. Traxler, and Matthew J. Crocker. 2000. “Ambiguity Resolution in Sentence Processing: Evidence against Frequency-Based Accounts.” Journal of Memory and Language 43 (3): 447–475. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Portolés, José. 2001 [1998]. Marcadores del discurso. Barcelona: Ariel.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2007. “Escalas informativas aditivas: pruebas del español.” Spanish in Context 4 (2): 135–157. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. “Los marcadores del discurso y la estructura informativa.” In Los estudios sobre marcadores del discurso en español, hoy, ed. by Óscar Loureda and Esperanza Acín, 281–326. Madrid: Arco Libros.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
R Core Team. 2014. “R: A language and environment for statistical computing.” R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Vienna, Austria.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Raposo, Ana, Mafalda Mendes, and J. Frederico Marques. 2012. “The Hierarchical Organization of Semantic Memory: Executive Function in the Processing of Superordinate Concepts.” Neuroimage 59: 1870–1878. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rayner, Keith. 1998. “Eye Movements in Reading and Information Processing: 20 Years of Research.” Psychological Bulletin 124 (3): 372–422. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. “Eye Movements and Attention in Reading, Scene Perception, and Visual Search.” The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 62 (8): 1457–1506. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rayner, Keith, Alexander Pollatsek, Jane Ashby, and Charles Clifton. 2012. Psychology of Reading. New York: Psychology Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rayner, Keith, and Sara Sereno. 1994. “Eye movements in Reading: Psycholinguistic Studies.” In Handbook of Psycholinguistics, ed. by Morton Ann Gernsbacher, 57–81. San Diego: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reichle, Erik, Keith Rayner, and Alexander Pollatsek. 2003. “The E-Z Reader Model of Eye-movement Control in Reading: Comparisons to Other Models.” Behavioral and Brain Science 26 (4): 445–476. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Richardson, Daniel, Rick Dale, and Michael Spivey. 2007. “Eye Movements in Language and Cognition.” Methods in Cognitive Linguistics 18, 323–344. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Richardson, John T. E. 1978. “Word Order and Imagery in the Recall of Adjective-noun Phrases.” International Journal of Psychology 13(3): 179–184. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roberts, Craige. 1998. “Focus, the Flow of Information and Universal Grammar.” In Syntax and Semantics: the Limits of Syntax, ed. by Peter Culicover, and Louise McNally, 109–160. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. “Information Structure in Discourse: Towards an Integrated Formal Theory of Pragmatics.” Semantics and Pragmatics 5(6): 1–69.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rochemont, Michael S. 1986. Focus in Generative Grammar. Vol. 4. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rooth, Mats. 1985. Association with Focus. PhD diss., University of Massachusetts.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1992. “A Theory of Focus Interpretation.” Natural Language Semantics 1(1): 75–116. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1996. “Focus.” In The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory, ed. by Shalom Lappin, 271–297. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rosch, Eleanor. 1973. “Natural Categories.” Cognitive Psychology 4: 328–350. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rosch, Eleanor, and Barbara Lloyd. 1978. Cognition and Categorization. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sandra, Dominiek. 2009. “Experimentation.” In Cognition and Pragmatics, ed. by Dominiek Sandra, Jan-Ola Östman, and Jef Verschueren, 288–368. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schumacher, Rahel, Miranka Wirth, Walter J. Perrig, Werner Strik, and Thomas König. 2009. “ERP Correlates of Superordinate Category Activation.” International Journal of Psychophysiology 72: 134–144. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schwenter, Scott A. 2002. “Additive Particles and Scalar Endpoint Marking.” Belgian Journal of Linguistics 16: 119–134.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Selkirk, Elisabeth. 1984. Phonology and Syntax. Massachussetts: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1985. “Intonation, Stress and Meaning.” In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 11: 491–504.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2007. “Contrastive Focus, Givenness and the Unmarked Status of Discourse-New.” Interdisciplinary Studies on Information Strucutre 6: 125–145.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sperber, Dan, and Deirdre Wilson. 1995. Relevance: Communication and Cognition. Oxford, Cambridge: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Kuppevelt, Jan. 1996. “Inferring from Topics.” Linguistics and Philosophy 19 (4): 393–443. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vasishth, Shravan, Daniela Mertzen, Lena A. Jäger, and Andrew Gelman. 2018. “The Statistical Significance Filter Leads to Overoptimistic Expectations of Replicability.” Journal of Memory and Language 103: 151–175.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zubizarreta, María L. 1999. “Las funciones informativas: tema y foco.” In Gramática Descriptiva de la Lengua Española, ed. by Ignacio Bosque, and Violeta Demonte, 4215–4244. Madrid: Espasa Calpe.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue