The Architecture of Focus

by Valeria Molnar (Editor), Susanne Winkler (Editor)

The Architecture of Focus offers the most precise and recent characterization of the notion of focus in linguistic theory. The volume contains brand-new and innovative papers that target the nature of focus and topic at the interfaces of the model of grammar. There are four main (i) a general section, concerned with the basic theory of the interaction of focus and topic with the components of grammar; (ii) the representation of focus at the syntax-pragmatics interface concentrating on language comparison; (iii) the phonological representation of focus and topic and its relation to meaning; and (iv) the interaction of focus and topic at the semantics-pragmatics interface with an emphasis on the notion of contrast. Together the papers collected in this volume present a state-of-the-art account of the architecture of focus.

625 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2006