Focus Semantics: Alternatives and Unalternatives
Daniel Büring, Vienna
daniel.buring@univie.ac.at
general: http://homepage.univie.ac.at/daniel.buring
for this course: http://homepage.univie.ac.at/daniel.buring/locker/lot2016.html
Updated 2/18/2016. Site under heavy construction. Much to be added later.
General
Level
introductory, as far as focus and intonation is concerned
intermediate, as far as semantics is concerned; requires basic knowlegde of semantics (quantificational logic, lambda-calculus, set theory) and a very basic syntax
Course description
The semantics and pragmatics of focus, based on alternative semantics (Rooth 1992). How is focus realized, represented, how are focus alternatives derived from it, and what pragmatic conditions are imposed on them?
Day-to-day program
- Monday: Alternative Semantics
- Tuesday: Givenness Theory
- Wednesday:Unalternative Semantics, basics
- Thursday: Unalternative Semantics, the works
- Friday: Contrast & Anaphoricity
Readings
- Background and preparatory readings:
- Daniel Büring (in press) "Intonation and Meaning". Oxford
University Press. (henceforth I&M), ch.1-2
- Lecture 1:
-
Mats Rooth (1996) "Focus". Shalom Lappin The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory 271--297 London Blackwell.
- I&M ch3.1-3.2
- Mats Rooth (1992) "A Theory of Focus Interpretation". Natural Language Semantics 1 75--116 . (sections 7+8 can be skipped)
- Lecture 2:
- Schwarzschild, Roger (1999) "GIVENness, {A}void{F} and Other Constraints on the Placement of Accent". Natural Language Semantics 7 141--177 . (formal sections 2.2, 3.2.1.2 may be skimmed)
- I&M ch3.3-3.5
- Lecture 3:
- Daniel Büring (2016) "A Beginner's Guide To Unalternative Semantics". ms. Vienna . http://semanticsarchive.net/Archive/jVmZjAxN/
- Daniel Büring (2015) "Unalternative Semantics". Proceedings of SALT 25 . http://semanticsarchive.net/Archive/DdhMjdhY/
- Lecture 4:
- Daniel Büring (2015) "Unalternative Semantics". Proceedings of SALT 25 . http://semanticsarchive.net/Archive/DdhMjdhY/
- Daniel Büring (forthcoming) "Discontinuous Foci and Unalternative Semantics". Proceedings of SinFonIJA 8 http://semanticsarchive.net/Archive/WM2MDk3M/
- Lecture 5:
- Daniel Büring (forthcoming) "Focus, Questions and Givenness". von Heusinger, Klaus and Edgar Onea and Malte Zimmermann Questions in Discourse Holland Brill. http://semanticsarchive.net/Archive/TZhZGZlM/
- Michael Wagner (2006) "Givenness and Locality". Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT) 16 Jonathan Howell and Masayuki Gibson Proceedings of the 16th Semantics and Linguistic Theory Conference 295--312 Ithaca {CLC} Publications.
- Katzir, Roni (2013) "A Note on Contrast". Natural Language Semantics 21 333--343 Springer Netherlands.
- Further readings (optional):
- Tanya Reinhart (2006) "Interface Strategies: Optimal and Costly Computations". Cambridge, Mass. {MIT} Press. Chapters 3 and 5.2
- Edwin Williams (1997) "Blocking and Anaphora". Linguistics Inquiry 28 577--628. Especially section 4.
- Elisabeth O. Selkirk (1995) "Sentence Prosody: Intonation, Stress, and Phrasing". John A. Goldsmith The Handbook of Phonological Theory 550--569 London Blackwell.
- Roger Schwarzschild (1997) "Interpreting Accent". Unpublished manuscript Rutgers University .
- Michael Wagner (2012) "Focus and Givenness: A Unified Approach". Ivona Ku\v{c}erov\'a and Ad Neeleman Contrasts and Positions in Information Structure 102--147 Cambridge Cambridge University Press.