The Meaning of Topic and Focus: The 59th Street Bridge Accent / Edition 1

by Daniel Büring

Overview

This study provides an illuminating and ground-breaking account of the complex interaction of intonational phenomena, semantics and pragmatics. Based on examples from German and English, and centred on an analysis of the fall-rise intonation contour, a semantic interpretation for two different pitch accents - Focus and Topic - is developed. The cross-sentence, as well as the sentence internal semantic effects of these accents, follow from the given treatment. The account is based on Montogovian possible world'semantics and Chomskian generative syntax.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415168977
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	10/09/1997
Series:	Routledge Studies in Germanic Linguistics , #3
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1280L (what's this?)

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Basic Assumptions; Chapter 2 Focus and Discourse; Chapter 3 The 59th Street Bridge Accent; Chapter 4 Quantifiers as S-Topics; Chapter 5 The Great Scope Inversion Conspiracy; Chapter 6 The Universal Disambiguator; Chapter 7 Summary;