The Architecture of Focus

The Architecture of Focus offers the most precise and recent characterization of the notion of focus in linguistic theory. The volume contains brand-new and innovative papers that target the nature of focus and topic at the interfaces of the model of grammar. There are four main sections: (i) a general section, concerned with the basic theory of the interaction of focus and topic with the components of grammar; (ii) the representation of focus at the syntax-pragmatics interface concentrating on language comparison; (iii) the phonological representation of focus and topic and its relation to meaning; and (iv) the interaction of focus and topic at the semantics-pragmatics interface with an emphasis on the notion of contrast. Together the papers collected in this volume present a state-of-the-art account of the architecture of focus.