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negotiating not-at-issue content with bərə (Marathi)

Abstract

This case study of Marathi discourse particle bərə in medial position makes two contributions: 1. bərə is used to question (how come p?) or reject (as if p) the prejacent p. Importantly, p is necessarily part of not-at-issue content of the preceding context update proposal 2. Hence, not-at-issue updates should be represented as proposals too. In advancing these points, a unified account of the two readings is offered. Formally, the proposalhood of not-at-issue updates is represented in the waiting room model (Biezma & Rawlins 2017) of discourse. The resulting outlook therefore shows that being at-issue ̸= being a proposal. Instead, at-issueness should only be relativized to the current QUD.