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Focus at the Syntax-Semantics Interface |
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Workshop |
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Focus at the Syntax-Semantics Interface
Workshop on Focus at the Syntax-Semantics Interface
April 6-7, 2008
University of Stuttgart
SFB 732
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A volume containing the papers that came out of the workshop is now available!
Workshop Description
Our aim for the workshop is that it should address some of the major
issues of focus interpretation at the syntax-semantics interface. The
following two questions are the key aspects to be discussed:
1) Syntax and focus interpretation
Do different syntactic realizations of focus affect focus interpretation
and if so how exactly? Do we need specific focus interpretation
machineries for different syntactic realizations of focus such as clefts
vs. intonational focus, information focus vs. identificational focus
etc. or can the effect of focus be treated in a unified way? If there is
something like a focus position, to which focussed elements are
systematically moved, what is the compositional semantics of such a
position? Do we need specific operators, such as an exhaustivity
operator for free focus in some languages?
2) Focus sensitivity
What is focus sensitivity? What forms of focus sensitivity are matters
for syntax, for semantics and pragmatics? In particular we wish to
discuss new research on discourse accounts of focus sensitivity and
explore the implications of such approaches on free focus interpretation
in different syntactic positions. We would also like to include into our
discussion data from languages with specific focus positions and
interpretation mechanisms like Hungarian.
Dealing with these different questions requires both syntactic and
semantic expertise and we would like the workshop to promote the
discussion and cooperation between syntacticians and semanticists that
we think are necessary.
Organized by the projects A1 "Incremental Specification of Focus and Givenness in a Discourse Context"
& C2 "Case and Referential Context"
Contact: Edgar Onea (Department of Linguistics) & Arndt Riester (Institute for Natural Language Processing)
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