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Focus is a concept in linguistic theory that deals with how information in one phrase relates to information that has come before. Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields Focus has been analyzed in a variety of ways by linguists. Historically, there have been two main approaches to focus – the generative approach and the functional approach. In Theoretical linguistics, generative grammar refers to a particular approach to the study of Syntax. In the generative approach, the term focus is used to refer to words or expressions that are either prosodically or syntactically prominent, generally because they introduce “new” information. In Linguistics, prosody (from Greek προσωδία) is the Rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech In Linguistics, syntax (from Ancient Greek grc συν- syn-, "together" and grc τάξις táxis, "arrangement" is the In the functional approach, the term focus is used to refer to words or expressions that establish coherence in the text or conversation. Although most articles in linguistic theory on focus are devoted to its effects in English, there is also extensive research on focus not only in topic-prominent languages such as Korean and Japanese, but also in languages such as Hungarian, Italian and Russian. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States In Linguistics, the topic (or theme) is the part of the proposition that is being talked about ( predicated) This article is mainly about the spoken Korean language See Hangul for details on the native Korean writing system is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities Hungarian ( magyar nyelv) is a Uralic language (more specifically a Ugric language) unrelated to most other languages in Europe. Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages

Contents

Generative Approaches

In generative linguistics, focus determines which part of the sentence contributes new or “textually and situationally non-derivable information” [1].

Standard generative approaches to grammar argue that phonology and semantics cannot exchange information directly (See Fig. Phonology ( Greek φωνή (phōnē voice sound + λόγος (lógos word speech subject of discussion is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning Semantics is the study of meaning in communication The word derives from Greek σημαντικός ( semantikos) "significant" from 1). Therefore, syntactic mechanisms including features and transformations include prosodic information regarding focus that is passed to the semantics and phonology. In Linguistics, a transformational grammar, or transformational-generative grammar ( TGG) is a Generative grammar, especially of a Natural

Fig. 1 The Y-Model of Syntax, Semantics and Phonology
Fig. 1 The Y-Model of Syntax, Semantics and Phonology

Focus may be highlighted either prosodically or syntactically or both, depending on the language. In syntax this can be done assigning focus markers, as shown in (1), or by preposing as shown in (2):


(1) I saw [JOHN] f.

(2) [JOHN] f, I saw.


In (1), focus is marked syntactically with the subscripted ‘f’ which is realized phonologically by a nuclear pitch accent. Pitch accent is a linguistic term of convenience for a variety of restricted tone systems that use variations in pitch to give prominence to a Syllable Clefting induces an obligatory intonation break. This article pertains to linguistics For other uses see Cleft (disambiguation. Therefore in (2), focus is marked via word order and a nuclear pitch accent.

Focus also relates to phonology and has ramifications for how and where suprasegmental information such as rhythm, stress, and intonation is encoded in the grammar, and in particular intonational tunes which mark focus [2]. In Linguistics, prosody (from Greek προσωδία) is the Rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech Rhythm (from Greek ῥυθμός - rhythmos, "any measured flow or movement symmetry" is the variation of the length and accentuation of In Linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain Syllables in a word In Linguistics, intonation is variation of pitch whilst speaking which is not used to distinguish words Speakers can use pitch accents on syllables to indicate what word(s) are in focus. New words are often accented while given words are not. The accented word(s) forms the focus domain. However, not all of the words in a focus domain need be accented. (See [3] [4] [5] for rules on accent placement and focus-marking). The focus domain can be either broad, as shown in (3), or narrow, as shown in (4) and (5):


(3) Did you see a grey dog or a cat? I saw [a grey DOG] f.

(4) Did you see a grey dog or a grey cat? I saw a grey [DOG] f.

(5) Did you see a grey dog or a black dog? I saw a [GREY] f dog.


The question/answer paradigm shown in (3) – (5) has been utilized by a variety of theorists [6] [2] to illustrate the range of contexts a sentence containing focus can be used felicitously. Specifically, the question/answer paradigm has been used as a diagnostic for what counts as new information. For example, the focus pattern in (3) would be infelicitous if the question was ‘Did you see a grey dog or a black dog?’.

In (3) and (4), the pitch accent is marked in bold. In (3), the pitch accent is placed on dog but the entire noun phrase a grey dog is under focus. In (4), the pitch accent is also placed on dog but only the noun dog is under focus. In (5), pitch accent is placed on grey and only the adjective grey is under focus.

Historically, generative proposals made focus a feature bound to a single word within a sentence. Chomsky & Halle [7] formulated a Nuclear Stress Rule that proposed there to be a relation between the main stress of a sentence and a single constituent. Avram Noam Chomsky (noʊm ˈtʃɑmski born December 7 1928 is an American linguist, Philosopher, cognitive scientist, Political Morris Halle, né Pinkowitz is a Latvian-American Jewish linguist and an Institute Professor and professor Emeritus of linguistics Since this constituent is prominent sententially in a way that can contrast with lexical stress, this was originally referred to as "nuclear" stress. The purpose of this rule was to capture the intuition that within each sentence, there is one word in particular that is accented more prominently due to its importance - this is said to form the nucleus of that sentence.

Focus was later suggested to be a structural position at the beginning of the sentence (or on the left periphery) in Romance languages such as Italian, as the lexical head of a Focus Phrase (or FP, following the X-bar theory of phrase structure). The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, or Neolatin languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all X-bar theory is a component of linguistic theory which attempts to identify syntactic features common to all languages In Formal semantics, Computer science and Linguistics, a formal grammar (also called formation rules) is a precise description of a Formal Jackendoff [8], Selkrik [3] [4], Rooth [9] [10], Krifka [11], Schwarzchild [5] argue that focus consists of a feature that is assigned to a node in the syntactic representation of a sentence. Ray Jackendoff (born January 23, 1945) is an American Linguist. Because focus is now widely seen as corresponding between heavy stress, or nuclear pitch accent, this feature is often associated with the phonologically prominent element(s) of a sentence.

Sound structure (phonological and phonetic) studies of focus are not as numerous, as relational language phenomena tend to be of greater interest to syntacticians and semanticists. Phonology ( Greek φωνή (phōnē voice sound + λόγος (lógos word speech subject of discussion is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning Phonetics (from the Greek φωνή ( phonê) "sound" or "voice" is the study of the physical sounds of human speech But this may be changing: a recent study found that not only do focused words and phrases have a higher range of pitch compared to words in the same sentence but that words following the focus in both American English and Mandarin Chinese were lower than normal in pitch and words before a focus are unaffected. Phonology North American English regional phonology In many ways compared to English English, North American English is conservative in its Phonology. The precise usages of focus in natural language are still uncertain. A continuum of possibilities could possibly be defined between precisely enunciated and staccato styles of speech based on variations in pragmatics or timing. In Phonetics, enunciation is the act of speaking Good enunciation is the act of speaking clearly and concisely In Musical notation, the Italian word staccato (literally detached, plural staccatos or staccati) indicates that notes Pragmatics is the study of the ability of Natural language speakers to communicate more than that which is explicitly stated

Currently, there are two central themes in research on focus in generative linguistics. First, given what words or expressions are prominent, what is the meaning of some sentence? Rooth [9] , Jacobs [12], Krifka [11] , and von Stechow [13] claim that there are lexical items and construction specific-rules that refer directly to the notion of focus . Dryer [14] , Kadmon [15], Marti [16], Roberts [6] , Schwarzschild [17] , Vallduvi [18], and Williams [19] argue for accounts in which general principles of discourse explain focus sensitivity [2]. Second, given the meaning and syntax of some sentence, what words or expressions are prominent?

Prominence and Meaning

Focus directly affects the semantics, or meaning, of a sentence. Different ways of pronouncing the sentence affects the meaning, or, what the speaker intends to convey. Focus distinguishes one interpretation of a sentence from other interpretations of the same sentence that do not differ in word order, but may differ in the way in which the words are taken to relate to each other. To see the effects of focus on meaning, consider the following examples:


(6) John only introduced Bill to SUE.


In (6), accent is placed on Sue. There are two readings of (6) - broad focus shown in (7) and narrow focus shown in (8):


(7) John only [introduced Bill to SUE] f.

(8) John only introduced Bill to [SUE] f.


The meaning of (7) can be summarized as the only thing John did is introducing Bill to Sue. The meaning of (8) can be summarized as the only person John introduced Bill to is Sue.

In both (7) and (8), focus is associated with the focus sensitive expression only. This is known as association with focus. The class of focus sensitive expressions in which focus can be associated with includes exclusives (only, just) non-scalar additives (merely, too) scalar additives (also, even), particularlizers (in particular, for example), intensifiers, quantificational adverbs, quantificational determiners, sentential connectives, emotives, counterfactuals, superlatives, negation and generics [2]. It is claimed that focus operators must c-command their focus. In Syntax, c-command is a relationship between nodes in Parse trees Originally defined by Tanya Reinhart (1976 1983it corresponds to the idea of "siblings

Alternative Semantics

Beginning with Rooth [9] [10], the effects of focus on semantics can be said to be the introduction of a set of alternatives that contrasts with the ordinary semantic meaning of a sentence. Consider the following example:


(9) Mary only likes [SUE] f.


The syntactic/semantic tree of the ordinary meaning of the sentence Mary likes Sue.
The syntactic/semantic tree of the ordinary meaning of the sentence Mary likes Sue. [10]

The ordinary semantic meaning of (9) is the binary relation:


like\langle Mary, Sue\rangle


(9) is true if and only if Mary stands in the like relation to Sue. In Mathematics, a binary relation (or a dyadic or 2-place relation) is an arbitrary association of elements within a set or with elements of The set of alternatives that is a resultant of Sue being focused is the set:


\{like\langle Mary, y\rangle |y \in E\}, where E is the domain of entities or individuals. In Mathematics, Logic and Computer science, type theory is any of several Formal systems that can serve as alternatives to Naive set theory


The relevant alternatives for example (9) might be the set:


\{like\langle Mary, Sue\rangle, like\langle Mary, Bill\rangle, like\langle Mary, Lisa\rangle\}.


In (9), the set of alternatives is said to contrast with the ordinary semantic meaning of because the speaker indicates that the ordinary semantic meaning is true while every alternative is false. For example in (9), Mary likes Sue is true while Mary likes Bill and Mary likes Lisa are both false. Generally, the meaning of (9) can be summarized as Mary likes Sue and no one else.

Structured Meanings

Following Jacobs [12] and Williams [19], Krifka [11] argues differently. Krifka [11] claims focus partitions the semantics into a background part and focus part, represented by the pair:

The syntactic/semantic tree of the sentence John only introduced [BILL] f to [SUE] f.
The syntactic/semantic tree of the sentence John only introduced [BILL] f to [SUE] f. [11]


\langle B,F\rangle


The logical form of which represented in lambda calculus is:


\langle \lambda x.x, A\rangle


This pair is referred to as a structured meaning. The form or logical form of an argument is the representation of its sentences using the Formal grammar and symbolism of a Logical system to display In Mathematical logic and Computer science, lambda calculus, also written as λ-calculus, is a Formal system designed to investigate function Structured meanings allow for a compositional semantic approach to sentences that involve single or multiple foci. This approach follows Frege's (1897) Principle of Compositionality: the meaning of a complex expression is determined by the meanings of its parts, and the way in which those parts are combined into structured meanings. Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege ( 8 November 1848, Wismar, Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin  &ndash 26 July 1925 Krifka’s [11] structured meaning theory represents focus in a transparent and compositional fashion it encompasses sentences with more than one focus as well as sentences with a single focus. Krifka [11] claims the advantages of structured meanings are two-fold: 1) We can access the meaning of an item in focus directly, and 2) Rooth's [9] [10] alternative semantics can be derived from a structured meaning approach but not vice versa. To see Krifka’s [11] approach illustrated, consider the following examples of single focus shown in (10) and multiple foci shown in (11):


(10) John introduced Bill to [SUE] f.

(11) John only introduced [BILL] f to [SUE] f.


Generally, the meaning of (10) can be summarized as John introduced Bill to Sue and no one else, and the meaning of (11) can be summarized as the only pair of persons such that John introduced the first to the second is Bill and Sue.


Specifically, the structured meaning of (10) is:


\langle introd(j, b, x), s\rangle where introd is the denotation of introduce, j John, b Bill and s Sue.


The background part of the structured meaning is; introd(j, b, x); and the focus part is s.

Through a (modified) form of functional application (or beta reduction), the focus part of (10) and (11) is projected up through the syntax to the sentential level. In Mathematical logic and Computer science, lambda calculus, also written as λ-calculus, is a Formal system designed to investigate function Importantly, each intermediate level has distinct meaning.

Focus Marking

It has been claimed that new information in the discourse is accented while given information is not. Generally, the properties of new and given are referred to as a word's discourse status. Definitions of new and given vary. Halliday [1] defines given as “ anaphorically” recoverable, while new is defined to be “textually and situationally non-derivable information”. In Rhetoric, an anaphora (ἀναφορά "carrying back" is emphasizing words by repeating them at the beginnings of neighboring clauses To illustrate this point, consider the following discourse in (12) and (13):


(12) Why don’t you have some French TOAST?

(13) I’ve forgotten how to MAKE French toast. [20]


In (13) we note that the verb make is not given by the sentence in (12). It is discourse new. Therefore, it is available for accentuation. However, toast in (13) is given in (12). Therefore, it is not available for accentuation. As previously mentioned, pitch accenting can relate to focus. Accented words are often said to be in focus or F-marked often represented by F-markers. The relationship between accent placement is mediated through the discourse status of particular syntactic nodes [21]. The percolation of F-markings in a syntactic tree is sensitive to argument structure and head-phrase relations [5] .

Selkirk [3] [4] & Accent Placement

Selkirk [3] [4] develops an explicit account of how F-marking propagates up syntactic trees. A parse tree or concrete syntax tree is an (ordered rooted tree that represents the syntactic structure of a string according to some Accenting indicates F-marking. F-marking projects up a given syntactic tree such that both lexical items, i. e. terminal nodes and phrasal levels, i. In Computer science, terminal and nonterminal symbols are those symbols that are used to construct production rules in a Formal grammar. e. nonterminal nodes, can be F-marked. In Computer science, terminal and nonterminal symbols are those symbols that are used to construct production rules in a Formal grammar. Specifically, a set of rules determines how and where F-marking occurs in the syntax. These rules are shown in (1) and (2):


(14) Basic Rule: An accented word is f-marked.

(15) Focus Projection:

a. F-marking the head of a phrase licenses F-marking of the phrase.
b. F-marking of the internal argument of a head licenses the F-marking of the head.
c. F-marking of the antecedent of a trace left by NP or wh-movement licenses F-marking of the trace.


To see how (14) and (15) apply, consider the following example:


[[Judy] f [adopted f a parrot f] f] foc [21]


Because there is no rule in (14) or (15) that licenses F-marking to the direct object from any other node, the direct object parrot must be accented as indicated in bold. Rule (15a) allows F-marking to project from the direct object to the head verb adopted. Rule (15b) allows F-marking to project from the head verb to the VP adopted a parrot. Selkirk [3] [4] assumes the subject Judy is accented if F-marked as indicated in bold [21] .

Schwarzchild [5] & Accent Placement

Schwarzchild [5] points out weaknesses in Selkirk’s [3] [4] ability to predict accent placement based on facts about the discourse. Selkirk’s [3] [4] theory says nothing about how accentuation arises in sentences with entirely old information. She does not fully articulate the notion of discourse status and its relation to accent marking. Schwarzchild [5] differs from Selkirk [3] [4], in that he develops a more robust model of discourse status. Discourse status is determined via the entailments of the context. This is achieved through the definition in (9):


(16) Definition of given: An utterance of U counts as given iff it has a salient antecedent A and

a. if U is type e, then A and U corefer;
b. In Mathematics, Logic and Computer science, type theory is any of several Formal systems that can serve as alternatives to Naive set theory otherwise: modulo \exists-type-shifting, A entails the existential F-closure of U.


The operation in (16b) can apply to any constituent. \exists-type-shifting “is a way of transforming syntactic constituents into full propositions so that it is possible to check whether they are entailed by the context” (German et. In Logic and Philosophy, proposition refers to either (a the content or Meaning of a meaningful Declarative sentence In Logic, entailment (or Logical implication) is a relation between sentences of a formal language such that if A is a set of sentences and B is a sentence al. 2006). For example, the result of \exists-type-shifting the VP in (5) is (6):


(17) [hums a happy tune]

(18) \existsx[x hums a happy tune] [21]


Note that (18) is a full proposition. The existential F-closure in (16b) refers to the operation of replacing the highest F-marked node with an existentially closed variable. The operation is shown in (19) and (20):


(19) \existsx[x hums [a happy f tune f] f]

(20) \existsY\existsx[x hums Y] [21]


Given the discourse context in (21a) it is possible to determine the discourse status of any syntactic node in (21b):


(21)

a. Sean [hummed a happy tune] VP
b. Angie [hummed [Chopin’s Funeral March] f] VP [21]


If the VP in (21a) is the salient antecedent for the VP in (21b), then the VP in (21b) counts as given. \exists-type-shifed VP in (21a) is shown in (22). The existential F-closure of the VP in (21b) is shown in (23):


(22) \existsx[x hums a happy tune]

(23) \existsY\existsx[x hums Y] [21]


(22) entails (23). Therefore, the VP of (9b) counts as given. Schwarzchild [5] assumes an optimality theoretic grammar [22] . Optimality Theory (OT is a linguistic model originally proposed by the linguists Alan Prince and Paul Smolensky in 1993 Accent placement is determined by a set of violable, hierarchically ranked constraints as shown in (24):


(24)

a. GIVENness: A constituent that is not F-marked is given.
b. Foc: A Foc-marked phrase contains an accent
c. AvoidF: Do not F-mark
d. HeadArg: A head is less prominent than its internal argument.


The ranking Schwarzchild [5] proposes is seen in (25):


(25) GIVENness, Foc >> AvoidF >> HeadArg


As we saw, GIVENness relates F-marking to discourse status. Foc relates F-marking to accent placement. Foc simply requires that a constinuent(s) of an F-marked phrase contain an accent. AvoidF states that less F-marking is preferable to more F-marking. HeadArg encodes the head-argument asymmetry into the grammar directly [21] .

Responses

Recent empirical work German et al. [21] suggests that both Selkirk’s [3] [4] and Schwarzchild’s [5] theory of accentuation and F-marking makes incorrect predictions. Consider the following context:


(26) Are the children playing their game?

(27) Paul took down their tent that they play their game in. [21]


It has been noted that prepositions are intrinsically weak and do not readily take accent [20], [21]. However, both Selkirk [3] [4] and Schwarzchild [5] predict that in the narrow focus context, an accent will occur at most on the preposition in (27) as shown in (28):


(28) Paul took down their tent that they [play their game [in f t f] foc]. In Transformational grammar, a trace is an empty (phonologically null category that occupies a position in the syntactic structure [21]


However, the production experiment reported in German et al. [21] showed that subjects are more likely to accent verbs or nouns as opposed to prepositions in the narrow focused context, thus ruling out accent patterns shown in (28). German et al. [21] argue for a stochastic constraint-based grammar similar to Anttila [23] and Boersma [24] that more fluidly accounts for how speakers accent words in discourse.

Functional Approaches

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Halliday, M. In Linguistics, the topic (or theme) is informally what is being talked about and the comment ( rheme or focus) is what is being In Linguistics, the topic (or theme) is the part of the proposition that is being talked about ( predicated) A topic-prominent language is a language that organizes its Syntax so that sentences have a topic–comment (or theme–rheme structure in which the (1967), Notes on Transitivity and Theme in English (Part 2), Journal of Linguistics 3. , p. 206 
  2. ^ a b c d Beaver, David I. & Brady Z. Clark (2008), Sense and Sensitivity: How Focus Determines Meaning, Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.  
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Selkirk, E. (1984), Phonology and Syntax: The Relation between Sound and Structure, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.  
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Selkirk, E. (1995), Sentence Prosody: Intonation, Stress, and Phrasing, In: J. A. Goldsmith (ed. ): The Handbook of Phonological Theory. London: Basil Blackwell, pp. 550–569.  
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Schwarzschild, R. (1999), GIVENness, AvoidF and other Constraints on the Placement of Accent, Natural Language Semantics 7(2), 141–177.  
  6. ^ a b Roberts, C. (1996), Information Structure in Discourse: Towards an Integrated Formal Theory of Pragmatics, OSU Working Papers in Linguistics 49. Papers in Semantics.  
  7. ^ Chomsky, N. & M. Halle (1968), The Sound Pattern of English, MIT Press.  
  8. ^ Jackendoff, R. (1972), Semantic Structures, MIT Press.  
  9. ^ a b c d Rooth, M. (1985), Association with Focus, Ph. D. thesis, UMass. Amherst: Graduate Linguistics Students Association.  
  10. ^ a b c d Rooth, M. (1992), A Theory of Focus Interpretation, Natural Language Semantics 1, 75–116.  
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h Rooth, M. (1992), A Compositional Semantics For Multiple Focus Constructions, Informationsstruktur und Grammatik 4.  
  12. ^ a b Jacobs, J. (1983), Fokus und Skalen, T¨ubingen: Niemeyer.  
  13. ^ von Stechow, A. (1989), Focusing and backgrounding operators, Universitat Konstanz, Fachgruppe Sprachwissenschaft, Arbeitspapier Nr. 6. Konstanz. Press.  
  14. ^ Dryer, M. S. (1994), The pragmatics of association with only, Paper presented at the 1994 Winter Meeting of the L. S. A. Boston, Massachusetts.  
  15. ^ Kadmon, N. (2001), Formal Pragmatics: Semantics, Pragmatics, Presupposition and Focus, Oxford: Blackwell.  
  16. ^ Marti, L. (2003), Contextual Variables, Ph. D. thesis, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT and MIT Working Papers in Linguistics.  
  17. ^ Schwarzschild, R. (1997), Why Some Foci Must Associate, Unpublished ms. , Rutgers University.  
  18. ^ Vallduvi, E. (1990), The Information Component, Ph. D. thesis, University of Pennsylvania.  
  19. ^ a b Williams, E. (1997), Blocking and Anaphora, Linguistic Inquiry 28(4), 577–628.  
  20. ^ a b Ladd, Robert D. (1980), The structure of intonational meaning: Evidence from English. , Bloomington: Indiana University Press.  
  21. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n German, J. , Pierrehumbert, J. and Kaufmann, S. (2006), Evidence for phonological constraints on nuclear accent placement, Language 82(1), 151-168.  
  22. ^ Prince, Alan, and Paul Smolensky (1993), Optimality theory: Constraint interaction in generative grammar, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University, and Boulder, CO: University of Colorado, MS.  
  23. ^ Antilla, A. (1997), Variation in Finnish phonology and morphology, Stanford, CA: Stanford University dissertation.  
  24. ^ Boersma, P. (1997), How we learn variation, optionality, and probability, Proceedings of the Institute of Phonetic Sciences of the University of Amsterdam 21. 43–58.  

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