Focus Particles in German: Syntax, Prosody, and Information Structure (Linguistik Aktuell)

353 Pages·2010·2.52 MB·English

by  Stefan Sudhoff

Focus Particles in German
Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today (LA)
Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today (LA) provides a platform for original monograph
studies into synchronic and diachronic linguistics. Studies in LA confront empirical
and theoretical problems as these are currently discussed in syntax, semantics,
morphology, phonology, and systematic pragmatics with the aim to establish robust
empirical generalizations within a universalistic perspective.
General Editors
Werner Abraham Elly van Gelderen
University of Vienna / Arizona State University
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Advisory Editorial Board
Josef Bayer Christer Platzack
University of Konstanz University of Lund
Cedric Boeckx Ian Roberts
ICREA/Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Cambridge University
Guglielmo Cinque Lisa deMena Travis
University of Venice McGill University
Liliane Haegeman Sten Vikner
University of Ghent University of Aarhus
Hubert Haider C. Jan-Wouter Zwart
University of Salzburg University of Groningen
Terje Lohndal
University of Maryland
Volume 151
Focus Particles in German. Syntax, prosody, and information structure
by Stefan Sudhoff
Focus Particles in German
Syntax, prosody, and information structure
Stefan Sudhoff
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sudhoff, Stefan, 1977-
Focus Particles in German : syntax, prosody, and information structure / by Stefan Sudhoff.
p. cm. (Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, issn 0166-0829 ; v. 151)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. German language--Particles. 2. German language--Syntax. 3. Prosodic analysis (Lin-
guistics) I. Title.
PF3321.S83 2010
435’.7--dc22 2009046132
isbn 978 90 272 5534 1 (Hb ; alk. paper)
isbn 978 90 272 8856 1 (Eb)
© 2010 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa
JB[v.20020404] Prn:23/11/2009;11:05 F:LA151DE.tex / p.1(46-79)
Boysgoto Jupiterto getmore stupider
GirlsgotoMars, becomerock stars
SonicYouth
Nevermind(WhatWasItAnyway)

JB[v.20020404] Prn:23/02/2010;12:41 F:LA151CO.tex / p.1(48-114)
Table of contents
Acknowledgements xi
Abbreviationsandnotationalconventions xiii
chapter1
Introduction 1
1.1 Scopeandgoals 1
1.2 Organizationofthisstudy 3
chapter2
Theoreticalbackground 5
2.1 Focusparticles 5
2.2 Syntax 10
2.3 Informationstructure 12
2.4 Prosody 27
2.5 Summary 31
chapter3
Thesemanticsoffocusparticles 33
3.1 Overview 33
3.2 Compositionalsemantics:Associationwithfocus 37
3.2.1 Syntactic,semantic,andpragmatictheories 37
3.2.2 JohnonlyintroducedBilltoSue:AlternativeSemantics
andStructuredMeanings 41
3.2.3 Therestrictionofthealternatives 46
3.2.4 Assertions,presuppositions,implicatures 48
3.3 Lexicalsemantics:Subgroupsoffocusparticles 52
3.3.1 Thetraditionalclassification 53
3.3.2 Across-classificationoffocusparticles 55
3.4 Summary 57
chapter4
Focusparticles,syntax,andinformationstructure 59
4.1 FocusparticlesinGerman:Adescriptivesurvey 60
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 FocusParticlesinGerman
4.1.1 Positionsoffocusparticlesandtheirdomains 60
4.1.2 Thelocationofthesentenceaccent 67
4.1.3 Contrastiveusesoffocusparticles 68
4.2 Syntacticanalysesoffocusparticleconstructions 73
4.2.1 Focusparticlesasadverbials 74
4.2.2 Focusparticlesascrosscategorialoperators 79
4.2.3 Theroleofinformationstructure 83
4.2.4 Summary 86
4.3 Analternativeproposal 86
4.4 FocusparticlesasadjunctstoVPandAP 88
4.4.1 Thesyntacticstatusandthepositionoffocusparticles 88
4.4.2 Associationwiththesentencefocus 90
4.4.3 Movementof(partsof)afocusparticle’sdomain 96
4.4.4 AnargumentagainstadjunctiontotherootCP 100
4.4.5 FocusparticlesasadjunctstoAP 101
4.4.6 Summary 103
4.5 Stressedadditivefocusparticles 103
4.5.1 Previousanalyses 104
4.5.2 Amovementaccountofstressedauch 109
4.5.3 Argumentsagainstamovementaccount 124
4.5.4 Summary 130
4.6 FocusparticlesasadjunctstoXP 131
4.6.1 AdjunctiontoDP,PP,andCP 131
4.6.2 ArgumentsagainstadjunctiontoXP 134
4.6.3 AdjunctiontoXPandinformationstructure 143
4.6.4 Summary 146
4.7 Summary 147
chapter5
Thescopeoffocusparticles 149
5.1 Syntacticrestrictionsonthescopeoffocusparticles 149
5.2 Relativescopeoffocusparticlesandotherscope-bearing
elements 153
5.2.1 Negation 154
5.2.2 DPsandadverbials 159
5.2.3 Multiplefocusparticles 163
5.3 The(no)reconstructionargumentagainstadjunctiontoXP 166
5.4 Summaryandconsequences 170
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Tableofcontents 
chapter6
Theprosodyofsentenceswithstressedadditivefocusparticles 173
6.1 Startingpointsandfirstobservations 173
6.2 Corpusstudy 178
6.2.1 Thecorpus 178
6.2.2 Syntacticdescriptionofthecorpusmaterial 179
6.2.3 Intonationalanalysis 179
6.2.4 Discussion 184
6.3 Experimentalpilotstudy 188
6.3.1 Hypotheses 190
6.3.2 Experiment1:Speechproduction 190
6.3.3 Experiment2:Speechperception 200
6.3.4 Generaldiscussion 205
6.4 Experiment3:Stressedauchinspeechproduction 207
6.4.1 Hypotheses 208
6.4.2 Dataelicitation 209
6.4.3 Dataanalysis 212
6.4.4 Qualitativeresults 215
6.4.5 Quantitativeresults 219
6.4.6 Discussion 227
6.5 Experiment4:Theperceptionofutterancescontaining
stressedauch(1) 228
6.5.1 Hypotheses 228
6.5.2 Method 229
6.5.3 Resultsanddiscussion 231
6.6 Experiment5:Theperceptionofutterancescontaining
stressedauch(2) 235
6.6.1 Hypotheses 235
6.6.2 Method 236
6.6.3 Resultsanddiscussion 239
6.7 Generaldiscussionandsummary 243
chapter7
Focusparticlesandcontrast 247
7.1 Focusparticles,thefocus-backgroundpartition,andcontrast 247
7.2 Prosodiccorrelatesofcontrastivefocus 249
7.3 Experiment6:Focusparticlesandcontrastinspeech
production 251
7.3.1 Experimentalconditionsandhypotheses 252
7.3.2 Dataelicitation 253
7.3.3 Dataanalysis 257