Open AccessDiscontinuous foci and unalternative semantics
Author(s) -
Daniel Büring
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
linguistica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.134
H-Index - 1
eISSN - 2350-420X
pISSN - 0024-3922
DOI - 10.4312/linguistica.56.1.67-82
Subject(s) - focus (optics) , semantics (computer science) , phrase , computer science , formal semantics (linguistics) , linguistics , natural language processing , programming language , philosophy , physics , optics
Discontinuous foci – cases in which the focus as expected by semantic or pragmatic considerations is not a single constituent within the phrase marker – are not commonly discussed in the formal literature on focussing. This paper proposes to use Unalternative Semantics to analyze such foci. Unalternative Semantics is a novel framework for calculating focus alternatives from metrically annotated trees (instead of trees with Fmakers); this format naturally lends itself to the modelling of discontinuous foci. The paper compares this approach to other, alternative options involving F-markers and argues in favor of the F-less treatment