Is there any Difference between Contrastive Focus and Information Focus?

Authors

  • Lisa Brunetti

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18148/sub/2003.v7i0.791

Abstract

This paper challenges the current assumption that there are two different types of focus in Italian: a ‘contrastive’ focus and an ‘information’ focus. I claim that the distinction does not hold at any level of the grammar. From an interpretive point of view, I show that there isn’t a focus expressing non-presupposed information and one expressing exhaustive identification, but only one focus expressing non-presupposed information. From a prosodic point of view, I argue that the rules of accent placement and the relation between accent and the focus domain are always the same. From a syntactic point of view, I show that a focus can always move to the left and that it always displays operator-like properties.

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Published

2019-08-20

How to Cite

Brunetti, L. (2019). Is there any Difference between Contrastive Focus and Information Focus?. Proceedings of Sinn Und Bedeutung, 7, 53–69. https://doi.org/10.18148/sub/2003.v7i0.791