Hardback: ISBN: 0415970954 Pages: 208 Price: U.S. $ 75.00
Abstract:
In the last decade, the notions of topic and focus have come to play an
increasingly relevant role in theoretical linguistics. Although these
notions are often taken for granted, they are still poorly understood. This
study offers a detailed analysis of the precise definitions of these and
related terms (theme, topic, background, given information, focus,
contrast, etc.) as well as of their combination into information structures
such as the topic-focus and background-focus articulations. It recommends
pursuing a feature-based typology of topics and argues against a dual
nature of focus (i.e. presentational vs. contrastive).
Central questions addressed are the analysis of subjects in Spanish and
English (DP vs. NP and null vs. preverbal vs. postverbal) and the nature of
constructions such as topicalization, left-dislocation, and focus
preposing. Further, it is proposed that in Spanish information structure
can be read off the syntax: while an overt DP in the preverbal specifier
subject position is interpreted as the topic in a topic-focus articulation,
one or more left- or right-dislocated phrases are interpreted as part of
the background in background-focus/focus-background structures.
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