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  •   PRISM Home
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  • Calgary (Working) Papers in Linguistics
  • Volume 27, Fall 2011
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  •   PRISM Home
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  • Calgary (Working) Papers in Linguistics
  • Volume 27, Fall 2011
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Focus marking in a language lacking pragmatic presuppositions

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Author
Koch, Karsten A
Accessioned
2016-06-24T21:19:55Z
Available
2016-06-24T21:19:55Z
Issued
2011-09
Subject
Linguistics
Pragmatics
Focus (Linguistics)
Constraints (Linguistics)
Context (Linguistics)
Ntlakyapamuk language
Interior Salish languages
Type
journal article
Metadata
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Abstract
This study investigates the effect of a language-wide lack of pragmatic resuppositions on focus marking (often taken to be inherently presuppositional). The language of investigation is Nɬeʔkepmxcin (Thompson River Salish). I show that discourse participants treat presuppositions triggered by focus in the same way as lexical presuppositions. Addressees do not challenge presuppositions that they do not share (strikingly unlike in English). Speakers, however, typically avoid using presuppositions not shared by the addressee. As a result, speakers avoid using their own utterances to mark narrow focus at all, a striking difference from English. I argue that this is due to another pragmatic constraint subject to cross-linguistic parameterization: while the speaker’s own utterance counts as being in the common ground for the purposes of marking presuppositions in English, Salish speakers do not generally mark presuppositions unless they have overt evidence that the addressee shares these presuppositions. This results in a radically different focus marking strategy within a discourse turn as opposed to across discourse turns.
Refereed
Yes
Citation
Koch, K. A. (2011). Focus marking in a language lacking pragmatic presuppositions. Calgary Working Papers in Linguistics, 27(Fall), 1-17.
Department
Linguistics
Faculty
Arts
Institution
University of Calgary
Publisher
University of Calgary
Doi
http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/28980
Uri
http://hdl.handle.net/1880/51472
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  • Volume 27, Fall 2011

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