The Meaning of Topic and Focus
The 59th Street Bridge Accent| By: | Daniel Büring |
| Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
| Print ISBN: | 9781138980655 |
| eText ISBN: | 9781134702060 |
| Edition: | 1 |
| Copyright: | 1997 |
| Format: | Reflowable |
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This study provides an illuminating and ground-breaking account of the complex interaction of intonational phenomena, semantics and pragmatics. Based on examples from German and English, and centred on an analysis of the fall-rise intonation contour, a semantic interpretation for two different pitch accents - Focus and Topic - is developed. The cross-sentence, as well as the sentence internal semantic effects of these accents, follow from the given treatment. The account is based on Montogovian possible world semantics and Chomskian generative syntax.