Focus fronting, unexpectedness, and evaluative implicatures

Focus Fronting and the Syntax-semantics Interface

Subpart of Focus Fronting Is Discourse Subordination

In this paper, we make three specific claims about German information structure and the interface between information structure and syntax. (1) First, the phenomenon known as ‘Subpart of Focus Fronting’ in German is in fact constrained by discourse context, contra the current literature (Fanselow & Lenertová 2011 on German and Czech). (2) Second, information structure should be present in the s...

Even-Focus and VP-Fronting in Mandarin Chinese

1. The Puzzles The goal of this paper is to account for the semantics-syntax mismatch and the optionality on the LF-PF mapping in Mandarin lian...dou VP-focus constructions. Specifically, I propose that the observed puzzle in this paper can be explained with the Copy Theory (Chomsky (1995), Bobaljik (2002), and others) and the theory in Bobaljik and Wurmbrand (2008) on LF-PF mapping. In Mandari...

Information Processing in Akan Question-word Fronting and Focus Constructions

Can the Metrical Structure of Italian Motivate Focus Fronting?