Successful language comprehension often requires comprehenders to infer contrastive focus alternatives, but the mechanisms used to establish contrastive alternatives are still poorly understood. We propose that comprehenders establish contrastive alternatives by using selection mechanisms that distinguish contrastive from non-contrastive candidates. To examine this proposal, we investigated the...

This study explored the effect of contrastive phrase resynthesis instruction ongaining the teachability hypothesis stages in self-paced versus time-constrained oralproduction and recognition. Three groups (i.e., 23 learners) of high beginner femalelearners in an English language institute were randomly selected from a cohort oflearners. One group received contrastive metalinguistic instruction ...

Theoretical approaches mostly associate stressed additive particles (e.g., auch in German) with contrastive topics. Empirical data show that associated constituents are produced more prominently than unassociated ones but not that they are contrastive topics. This paper compares the prosodic realizations of associated constituents with contrastive and non-contrastive topics. We found no differe...

This paper puts forward the idea that in Greek contrast is an independent feature, represented in syntax by a preverbal position. Contrast can be assigned to diierent sorts of entities, topics and foci, once a set/list of contrasting alternatives/entities has been introduced or directly implied by the discourse. Evidence for an independent treatment of contrast is provided by similarities in th...

this study explored the effect of contrastive phrase resynthesis instruction ongaining the teachability hypothesis stages in self-paced versus time-constrained oralproduction and recognition. three groups (i.e., 23 learners) of high beginner femalelearners in an english language institute were randomly selected from a cohort oflearners. one group received contrastive metalinguistic instruction ...

the present research aims to examine the effect of task-based syllabus and contrastive analysis of nominal and verbal phrases in persian and lari languages on enhancing persian knowledge of lari speakers. to do so, a sample of 60 subjects in second year of elementary school was selected through multistage and purposive sampling. then, they were divided into two thirty-student groups, one experi...

In a previous production study [1] we explored the prosodic marking of thematic material in contrastive and non-contrastive contexts in German. While both conditions resulted in a prenuclear rise, we found that themes in contrastive context exhibited a significantly longer stressed vowel, together with a higher and later peak. Interestingly, speakers varied as to whether they used peak alignmen...

Sentences with contrastive intonation are assumed to presuppose contextual alternatives to the accented elements. Two cross-modal priming experiments tested in Dutch whether such contextual alternatives are automatically available to listeners. Contrastive associates – but not noncontrastive associates were facilitated only when primes were produced in sentences with contrastive intonation, ind...