The topic of this book is the notion of ‘focus’ and its linguistic characterization. The main thesis is that focus has a uniform grammatical identification only as a syntactic element with – in English at least – a certain systematic phonological interpretation and – presumably universally – a range of semantic interpretations. In broad respects, the framework within this investigation is conducted is that of Chomsky & Lasnik (1977) and the subsequent Government and Binding framework. After considering defining the location of prominence in a focused phrase in terms of constituent structure, the author argues that an argument structure approach to the focus phrase/prominence relation is more promising. This is then exemplified in analyses of cleft focus and constructional focus.
2025. Additivity, accommodation, and alternatives. Natural Language Semantics 33:3 ► pp. 291 ff.
Glasbergen-Plas, Aliza, Jenny Doetjes & Lisa L.-S. Cheng
2025. Linking French wh-in-situ and context: a choice function analysis. Probus
Li, Yuting
2025. A multivariate corpus analysis of locative inversion in Mandarin Chinese. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory
Munteanu, Andrei & Angelika Kiss
2025. Form-Meaning Relations in Russian Confirmative and Surprise Declarative Questions. Language and Speech
Wang, Chengdong
2025. On the syntax and pragmatics of the ‘why + not + XP’ construction: a cartographic approach. Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics 61:3 ► pp. 417 ff.
Arnhold, Anja
2024. No prosody-syntax trade-offs: Prosody marks focus in Mandarin cleft constructions. Laboratory Phonology 15:1
GONZÁLEZ, CAROLINA & LARA REGLERO
2024. Intonation correlates of canonical and non-canonical wh-in-situ questions in Spanish. Journal of Linguistics 60:1 ► pp. 29 ff.
Katzir, Roni
2024. On the roles of anaphoricity and questions in free focus. Natural Language Semantics 32:1 ► pp. 65 ff.
Oda, Hiromune
2024. Large-scale pied-piping in the labeling theory and conditions on weak heads. The Linguistic Review 41:1 ► pp. 153 ff.
Sato, Yosuke
2024. Partial Wh-Movement in Indonesian, Criterial Freezing, and Sub-Extraction. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 69:1 ► pp. 63 ff.
Assmann, Muriel, Daniel Büring, Izabela Jordanoska & Max Prüller
2023. Towards a theory of morphosyntactic focus marking. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 41:4 ► pp. 1349 ff.
2023. Prosodic Patterns in the Four Existential Constructions with Relative Clause. In Specificational and Presentational There-Clefts, ► pp. 135 ff.
Kim, Dong Jin, Okgi Kim & Hanyong Park
2023. Prosodic realization of identification and contrastive focus in Korean multiple accusative constructions. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 8:1
Lee, Tommy Tsz-Ming
2023. Last but not least: a comparative perspective on right dislocation in Alasha Mongolian. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 32:4 ► pp. 459 ff.
Sawada, Osamu
2023. Scalarity of the Japanese initial mora-based minimizer: a compositional (lexically unspecified) minimizer and a non-compositional (lexically specified) minimizer. Natural Language Semantics 31:2-3 ► pp. 71 ff.
Bertrand, Nicolas & Richard Faure
2022. Wh‐InterrogativesIn Ancient Greek Disentangling Focus‐ AndWh‐Movement*. Studia Linguistica 76:3 ► pp. 735 ff.
2021. Packaging Information as Fact Versus Opinion: Consequences of the (Information-)Structural Position of Subjective Adjectives. Discourse Processes 58:7 ► pp. 617 ff.
Veselovská, Ludmila
2021. Wh-Questions,
Živković, Ema & Nina Sudimac
2021. The effect of focus and the focus particlesamoon the exclusion of contextual alternatives in Serbian. Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics 57:2 ► pp. 299 ff.
Kratzer, Angelika & Elisabeth Selkirk
2020. Deconstructing information structure. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 5:1
Schoenmakers, Gert-Jan
2020. Freedom in the Dutch middle-field: Deriving discourse structure at the syntax-pragmatics interface. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 5:1
Wagner, Michael
2020. Prosodic Focus. In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Semantics, ► pp. 1 ff.
Watson, Duane G., Cassandra L. Jacobs & Andrés Buxó‐Lugo
2020. Prosody indexes both competence and performance. WIREs Cognitive Science 11:3
Amaechi, Mary & Doreen Georgi
2019. Quirks of subject (non-)extraction in Igbo. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 4:1
Amaechi, Mary & Doreen Georgi
2021. On optional wh-/focus fronting in Igbo: A SYN-SEM-PHON interaction. Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft 39:3 ► pp. 299 ff.
2019. Adverbial clauses and adverbial concord. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 4:1
Hsu, Yu-Yin & Claudia Felser
2019. Associations between focus constructions and levels of exhaustivity: An experimental investigation of Chinese. PLOS ONE 14:10 ► pp. e0223502 ff.
İşsever, Selçuk
2019. On the Ban on Postverbal wh Phrases in Turkish: A Syntactic Account. In Word Order in Turkish [Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 97], ► pp. 67 ff.
Lai, Jackie Yan-Ki
2019. Parallel copying in dislocation copying: evidence from Cantonese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 28:3 ► pp. 243 ff.
Leal, Tania, Emilie Destruel & Bradley Hoot
2019. The acquisition of Focus in L2 Spanish. Second Language Research 35:4 ► pp. 449 ff.
Lobo, Maria, Ana Lúcia Santos, Carla Soares-Jesel & Stéphanie Vaz
2019. Effects of syntactic structure on the comprehension of clefts. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 4:1
Stevens, Jon S. & Gareth Roberts
2019. Noise, Economy, and the Emergence of Information Structure in a Laboratory Language. Cognitive Science 43:2
Özsoy, A. Sumru
2019. Derivation of Fronting in Turkish. In Word Order in Turkish [Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 97], ► pp. 139 ff.
Aravind, Athulya, Martin Hackl & Ken Wexler
2018. Syntactic and Pragmatic Factors in Children’s Comprehension of Cleft Constructions. Language Acquisition 25:3 ► pp. 284 ff.
Herbeck, Peter
2018. Deriving Null, Strong and Emphatic Pronouns in Romance Pro-Drop Languages. In Pronouns in Embedded Contexts at the Syntax-Semantics Interface [Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy, 99], ► pp. 171 ff.
Puerma Bonilla, Javier
2018. La función informativa del sujeto en construcciones transitivas en la historia del español
. Revista de Historia de la Lengua Española :13 ► pp. 91 ff.
Andreeva, Bistra, William John Barry & Jacques Koreman
2017. Local and Global Cues in the Prosodic Realization of Broad and Narrow Focus in Bulgarian. Phonetica 73:3-4 ► pp. 256 ff.
Gotzner, Nicole
2017. Theoretical and Empirical Background. In Alternative Sets in Language Processing, ► pp. 11 ff.
Gotzner, Nicole
2019. The role of focus intonation in implicature computation: a comparison with only and also. Natural Language Semantics 27:3 ► pp. 189 ff.
2017. The Intonation of Wh- and Yes/No-Questions in Tokyo Japanese. In Contrastiveness in Information Structure, Alternatives and Scalar Implicatures [Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 91], ► pp. 399 ff.
Kügler, Frank & Caroline Féry
2017. Postfocal Downstep in German. Language and Speech 60:2 ► pp. 260 ff.
Reeve, Matthew & Glyn Hicks
2017. Adjunct Extraposition: Base Generation or Movement?. Syntax 20:3 ► pp. 215 ff.
Brown, Jason & Karsten Koch
2016. Focus and Change in Polynesian Languages*. Australian Journal of Linguistics 36:3 ► pp. 304 ff.
Soares, Eduardo Correa
2016. Yes-No Answers, Partial Pro-drop Languages and Machine Translation. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 231 ► pp. 135 ff.
Tonhauser, Judith
2015. Are ‘informative presuppositions’ presuppositions?. Language and Linguistics Compass 9:2 ► pp. 77 ff.
Biezma, María
2014. Multiple Focus Strategies inPro‐Drop Languages: Evidence from Ellipsis in Spanish. Syntax 17:2 ► pp. 91 ff.
Cheung, Candice Chi-Hang
2014. Wh-fronting and the left periphery in Mandarin. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 23:4 ► pp. 393 ff.
2013. Informativity and analogy in English compound stress. Word Structure 6:2 ► pp. 129 ff.
Féry, Caroline
2013. Focus as prosodic alignment. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 31:3 ► pp. 683 ff.
Féry, Caroline
2020. Grammatical Reflexes of Information Structure in Germanic Languages. In The Cambridge Handbook of Germanic Linguistics, ► pp. 661 ff.
Hartmann, Jutta M.
2013. Freezing in it-clefts. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 58:3 ► pp. 487 ff.
MÉLIS, Gérard
2013. Analyse de la composante sémantique lexicale de l’inversion locative en anglais. E-rea :11.1
馮, 勝利
2013. The Nuclear Stress Rule in Chinese. Bulletin of the Chinese Linguistic Society of Japan 2013:260 ► pp. 6 ff.
Olarrea, Antxon
2012. Word Order and Information Structure. In The Handbook of Hispanic Linguistics, ► pp. 603 ff.
Donaldson, Bryan
2011. Nativelike right-dislocation in near-native French. Second Language Research 27:3 ► pp. 361 ff.
Donaldson, Bryan
2012. Syntax and Discourse in Near‐Native French: Clefts and Focus. Language Learning 62:3 ► pp. 902 ff.
Fanselow, Gisbert & Denisa Lenertová
2011. Left peripheral focus: mismatches between syntax and information structure. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 29:1 ► pp. 169 ff.
Koch, Karsten A.
2011. A Phonetic Study of Intonation and Focus in Nłeʔkepmxcin (Thompson River Salish). In Prosodic Categories: Production, Perception and Comprehension [Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, ], ► pp. 111 ff.
Koch, Karsten A.
2013. Focus on head-final relatives. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 58:2 ► pp. 191 ff.
Breen, Mara, Evelina Fedorenko, Michael Wagner & Edward Gibson
2010. Acoustic correlates of information structure. Language and Cognitive Processes 25:7-9 ► pp. 1044 ff.
ZHOU, PENG & STEPHEN CRAIN
2010. Focus identification in child Mandarin. Journal of Child Language 37:5 ► pp. 965 ff.
Carlson, Katy, Michael Walsh Dickey, Lyn Frazier & Charles Clifton
2009. Information structure expectations in sentence comprehension. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 62:1 ► pp. 114 ff.
Cheung, Lawrence Yam-Leung
2009. Dislocation focus construction in Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 18:3 ► pp. 197 ff.
Ebert, Cornelia & Stefan Hinterwimmer
2009. The interpretation of topical indefinites as direct and indirect aboutness topics. In Information Structure, ► pp. 89 ff.
2009. Subject focus in West African languages. In Information Structure, ► pp. 234 ff.
Féry, Caroline & Shinichiro Ishihara
2009. How focus and givenness shape prosody. In Information Structure, ► pp. 36 ff.
Hinterhölzl, Roland
2009. Information structure and unmarked word order in (Older) Germanic. In Information Structure, ► pp. 282 ff.
Hróarsdóttir, þorbjörg
2009. Information structure and OV order. In Information Structure, ► pp. 258 ff.
Hyman, Larry M. & Maria Polinsky
2009. Focus in Aghem. In Information Structure, ► pp. 206 ff.
Hörnig, Robin & Thomas Weskott
2009. 15 Given and new information in spatial statements. In Information Structure, ► pp. 354 ff.
Kaiser, Elsi
2009. Investigating effects of structural and information‐structural factors on pronoun resolution. In Information Structure, ► pp. 332 ff.
Kaiser, Elsi
2011. Focusing on pronouns: Consequences of subjecthood, pronominalisation, and contrastive focus. Language and Cognitive Processes 26:10 ► pp. 1625 ff.
2009. Structural focus and exhaustivity. In Information Structure, ► pp. 64 ff.
Reese, Brian & Nicholas Asher
2009. Biased questions, intonation, and discourse. In Information Structure, ► pp. 139 ff.
Skopeteas, Stavros & Gisbert Fanselow
2009. Effects of givenness and constraints on free word order. In Information Structure, ► pp. 307 ff.
Tomioka, Satoshi
2009. Contrastive topics operate on speech acts. In Information Structure, ► pp. 115 ff.
Malte Zimmermann & Caroline Féry
2009. Introduction. In Information Structure, ► pp. 1 ff.
Malte Zimmermann & Caroline Féry
2009. Information Structure,
CULICOVER, PETER W. & SUSANNE WINKLER
2008. English focus inversion. Journal of Linguistics 44:3 ► pp. 625 ff.
SHIMA, ETSURO
2008. Two Types of Elliptical Constructions (S. Winkler, Ellipsis and Focus in Generative Grammar). ENGLISH LINGUISTICS 25:1 ► pp. 292 ff.
Ward, Gregory
2008. 4 Equatives and Deferred Reference. In Reference, ► pp. 73 ff.
Zimmermann, Malte
2008. Contrastive focus and emphasis. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 55:3-4 ► pp. 347 ff.
Ferreira, Fernanda
2007. Prosody and performance in language production. Language and Cognitive Processes 22:8 ► pp. 1151 ff.
Liakin, Denis
2007. Les questions multiples : le débat continue. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 52:3 ► pp. 279 ff.
Dikken, Marcel Den
2006. Either-Float and the Syntax of Co-or-dination. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 24:3 ► pp. 689 ff.
Szendröi, Kriszta
2006. Focus Movement (With Special Reference to Hungarian). In The Blackwell Companion to Syntax, ► pp. 272 ff.
Szendrői, Kriszta
2017. Focus Movement. In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Syntax, Second Edition, ► pp. 1 ff.
Sæbø, Kjell Johan
2006. Focus interpretation in Thetic statements: Alternative Semantics and Optimality Theory Pragmatics. Journal of Logic, Language and Information 16:1 ► pp. 15 ff.
Zubizarreta, María Luisa & Jean‐Roger Vergnaud
2006. Phrasal Stress and Syntax. In The Blackwell Companion to Syntax, ► pp. 522 ff.
Zubizarreta, María Luisa & Jean‐Roger Vergnaud
2017. Phrasal Stress and Syntax. In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Syntax, Second Edition, ► pp. 1 ff.
Cat, Cécile De
2005. French subject clitics are not agreement markers. Lingua 115:9 ► pp. 1195 ff.
Kennedy, Becky
2005. Interpretive effects in multiple interrogation. Journal of Pragmatics 37:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Samek-Lodovici, Vieri
2005. Prosody–Syntax Interaction in the Expression of Focus. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 23:3 ► pp. 687 ff.
Artstein, Ron
2004. Focus Below the Word Level. Natural Language Semantics 12:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Bart Geurts & Rob van der Sandt
2004. Interpreting focus. Theoretical Linguistics 30:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
INOUE, KAZUKO
2004. Conceptual and Methodological Bases of the Minimalist Program (N. Chomsky, On Nature and Language). ENGLISH LINGUISTICS 21:2 ► pp. 514 ff.
Angelika Kratzer
2004. Interpreting focus: Presupposed or expressive meanings? A comment on Geurts and van der Sandt. Theoretical Linguistics 30:1 ► pp. 123 ff.
Büring, Daniel
2003. On D-Trees, Beans, And B-Accents. Linguistics and Philosophy 26:5 ► pp. 511 ff.
Büring, Daniel
2009. Towards a typology of focus realization. In Information Structure, ► pp. 177 ff.
Büring, Daniel
2019. Topless and Salient—Convertibles in the Theory of Focus. In The Semantics of Plurals, Focus, Degrees, and Times, ► pp. 137 ff.
Glatz, Daniel & Ralf Klabunde
2003. Focus as perspectivation. Linguistics 41:5
Hoof, Hanneke van
2003. The rise in the risefall contour: does it evoke a contrastive topic or a contrastive focus?. Linguistics 41:3
Winkler, Susanne & Edward Göbbel
2002. Focus, p-movement, and the nuclear-stress rule: a view from Germanic and Romance. Linguistics 40:6
Cohan, Jocelyn
2001. Consider the Alternatives: Focus in Contrast and Context. In Modeling and Using Context [Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2116], ► pp. 102 ff.
JOHANSSON, MATS
2001. Clefts in contrast: a contrastive study of it clefts and wh clefts in English and Swedish texts and translations. Linguistics 39:3
Kahnemuyipour, Arsalan
2001. OnWh-questions in Persian. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 46:1-2 ► pp. 41 ff.
Lambova, Mariana
2001. On A-bar movements in Bulgarian and their interaction. The Linguistic Review 18:4
NIKOLAEVA, IRINA
2001. Secondary topic as a relation in information structure. Linguistics 39:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Po-lun, Peppina Lee & Haihua Pan
2001. The Chinese negation marker bu and its association with focus. Linguistics 39:4
Bader, Markus
2000. On Reanalyis: Evidence from German. In German Sentence Processing [Studies in Theoretical Psycholinguistics, 24], ► pp. 187 ff.
LóPEZ, LUIS & SUSANNE WINKLER
2000. Focus and topic in VP-anaphora constructions. Linguistics 38:4
Bader, Markus & Michael Meng
1999. Subject-Object Ambiguities in German Embedded Clauses: An Across-the-Board Comparison. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 28:2 ► pp. 121 ff.
Schwarzschild, Roger
1999. GIVENNESS, AVOIDF AND OTHER CONSTRAINTS ON THE PLACEMENT OF ACCENT*. Natural Language Semantics 7:2 ► pp. 141 ff.
Basilico, David
1998. Object Position and Predication Forms. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 16:3 ► pp. 541 ff.
KOBAYASHI, KEIICHIRO
1997. A MINIMALIST APPROACH TO PSEUDOCLEFTS IN ENGLISH. ENGLISH LINGUISTICS 14:0 ► pp. 1 ff.
Noonan, Máire B.
1997. Functional Architecture and Wh-Movement: Irish as a Case in Point. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 42:1-2 ► pp. 111 ff.
Feng, Shengli
1996. Prosodically constrained syntactic changes in Early Archaic Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 5:4 ► pp. 323 ff.
Feng, Shengli
2003. Prosodically constrained postverbal PPs in Mandarin Chinese. Linguistics 41:6
1996. Proceeding of Fourth International Conference on Spoken Language Processing. ICSLP '96, ► pp. 1632 ff.
Jokweni, Mbulelo W.
1996. Deriving phonological phrases in Xhosa. South African Journal of Linguistics 14:2 ► pp. 51 ff.
Otero, Carlos P.
1996. Head Movement, Cliticization, Precompilation, and Word Insertion (Comments on Uriagereka’s Paper). In Current Issues in Comparative Grammar [Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 35], ► pp. 296 ff.
1992. The syntax of zenmeyang ?how? and weishenme ?why? in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 1:3 ► pp. 293 ff.
MARUTA, TADAO
1992. English Focus Constructions and the Theory of Grammar, by Michael S. Rochemont and Peter W. Culicover, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1990, vii+210 pp. ENGLISH LINGUISTICS 9:0 ► pp. 357 ff.
Reis, Marga & Inger Rosengren
1992. What do Wh-imperatives tell us about Wh-movement?. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 10:1 ► pp. 79 ff.
Rooth, Mats
1992. A theory of focus interpretation. Natural Language Semantics 1:1 ► pp. 75 ff.
Rooth, Mats
2009. Second occurrence focus andRelativized Stress F. In Information Structure, ► pp. 15 ff.
Tuller, Laurice
1992. The syntax of postverbal focus constructions in Chadic. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 10:2 ► pp. 303 ff.
Erteschik-Shir, Nomi
1991. M. S. Rochemont & P. W. Culicover, English focus constructions and the theory of grammar. (Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 52.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Pp. vii + 210.. Journal of Linguistics 27:2 ► pp. 525 ff.
Gussenhoven, Carlos
1991. The English Rhythm Rule as an accent deletion rule. Phonology 8:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Zobl, Helmut
1989. Modularity in Adult L2 Acquisition. Language Learning 39:1 ► pp. 49 ff.
Smyth, Ronald H.
1988. Contextual Motivation and Working Memory. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 33:3 ► pp. 231 ff.
Pettit, Philip
1987. Inference and information. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 10:4 ► pp. 727 ff.
Reboul, Anne
1987. The relevance of Relevance for fiction. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 10:4 ► pp. 729 ff.
Recanati, François
1987. Literalness and other pragmatic principles. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 10:4 ► pp. 729 ff.
Russell, Stuart J.
1987. Rationality as an explanation of language?. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 10:4 ► pp. 730 ff.
Seuren, Pieter A. M.
1987. How relevant?. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 10:4 ► pp. 731 ff.
Smith, Carlota S.
1987. The information needed for inference. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 10:4 ► pp. 733 ff.
Smith, Carlota S.
2003. Modes of Discourse,
Smith, N. V.
1987. On interpreting “interpretive use”. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 10:4 ► pp. 734 ff.
Sperber, Dan & Deirdre Wilson
1987. Presumptions of relevance. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 10:4 ► pp. 736 ff.
TAKAMI, KEN-ICHI
1987. ADJUNCTS AND THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF VP. ENGLISH LINGUISTICS 4:0 ► pp. 55 ff.
Wilks, Yorick
1987. Relevance must be to someone. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 10:4 ► pp. 735 ff.
1986.
Paul Werth. Focus, Coherence, and Emphasis. London: Croom Helm. 1984. Pp. 293.. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 31:2 ► pp. 189 ff.
[no author supplied]
2003. References. In Word Order and Scrambling, ► pp. 345 ff.
[no author supplied]
2006. Bibliography. In The Handbook of Pragmatics, ► pp. 742 ff.
[no author supplied]
2006. Consolidated References. In The Blackwell Companion to Syntax, ► pp. 439 ff.
[no author supplied]
2009. Abbreviations and symbols. In Information Structure, ► pp. xi ff.
[no author supplied]
2009. Notes on contributors. In Information Structure, ► pp. vii ff.
[no author supplied]
2009. Copyright Page. In Information Structure, ► pp. iv ff.
[no author supplied]
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