Focus marking in a language lacking pragmatic presuppositions

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dc.contributor.authorKoch, Karsten A
dc.date.accessioned2016-06-24T21:19:55Z
dc.date.available2016-06-24T21:19:55Z
dc.date.issued2011-09
dc.description.abstractThis 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.en_US
dc.description.refereedYesen_US
dc.identifier.citationKoch, K. A. (2011). Focus marking in a language lacking pragmatic presuppositions. Calgary Working Papers in Linguistics, 27(Fall), 1-17.en_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/28980
dc.identifier.issn2371-2643
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1880/51472
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Calgaryen_US
dc.publisher.departmentLinguisticsen_US
dc.publisher.facultyArtsen_US
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Calgaryen_US
dc.subjectLinguisticsen_US
dc.subjectPragmaticsen_US
dc.subjectFocus (Linguistics)en_US
dc.subjectConstraints (Linguistics)en_US
dc.subjectContext (Linguistics)en_US
dc.subjectNtlakyapamuk languageen_US
dc.subjectInterior Salish languagesen_US
dc.titleFocus marking in a language lacking pragmatic presuppositionsen_US
dc.typejournal article
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Volume 27, Fall 2011