Topic and focus

  • The paper explicates the notions of topic, contrastive topic, and focus as used in the analysis of Hungarian. Based on distributional criteria, topic and focus are claimed to represent distinct structural positions in the left periphery of the Hungarian sentence, associated with logical rather than discourse functions. The topic is interpreted as the logical subject of predication. The focus is analyzed as a derived main predicate, specifying the referential content of the set denoted by the backgrounded post-focus section of the sentence. The exhaustivity associated with the focus and the existential presupposition associated with the background are shown to be properties following from their specificational predication relation.

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Metadaten
Author details:Katalin É. Kiss
URN:urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19639
Subtitle (English):two structural positions associated with logical functions in the left periphery of the Hungarian Sentence
Publication type:Part of a Book
Language:English
Publication year:2007
Publishing institution:Universität Potsdam
Release date:2008/07/25
Tag:contrastive topic; exhaustive identification; focus; topic
Organizational units:Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Strukturbereich Kognitionswissenschaften / Department Linguistik
DDC classification:4 Sprache / 40 Sprache / 400 Sprache
Collection(s):Universität Potsdam / Schriftenreihen / Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632, ISSN 1866-4725 / ISIS (2007) 06
Institution name at the time of the publication:Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Linguistik / Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft
License (German):License LogoKeine öffentliche Lizenz: Unter Urheberrechtsschutz
External remark:erschienen in:
The Notions of information structure / (eds.) Caroline Féry ... - Potsdam : Univ.-Verl., 2007. - 235 S.(Interdisciplinary studies on information structure ; 6)ISSN 1614-4708ISBN 978-3-939469-88-9
URN: urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-15472
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