Overview

"In ""What Counts"", Elena Herburger considers the effects of focus on interpretation. She investigates how focus affects the pragmatics and truth conditions of a sentence by rearranging its quantificational structure. Adopting a neo-Davidsonian stance, Herburger claims that various pragmatic and truth-conditional effects of focus sustain a uniform explanation if focus is viewed as imposing structure on otherwise unrestricted quantification. Phenomena discussed include ""free"" focus, the interaction between focus and negation, the quantificational structure of adverbs of quantification, the semantics of ""only"" and ""even"", and the difference between weak and strong determiners. One of Herburger's aims is to show that a simple semantics, without reliance on such notions as semantic presupposition, can account for the truth-conditional and pragmatic effects of focus. The book should be of interest to anyone exploring the syntax-semantics interface and current theories of quantification."

Full Product Details

Author:   Elena Herburger (Georgetown Univ)
Publisher:   MIT Press Ltd
Imprint:   MIT Press
Volume:   36
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.20cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.408kg
ISBN:  

9780262082877

ISBN 10:   026208287
Pages:   184
Publication Date:   10 October 2000
Recommended Age:   From 18
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   No Longer Our Product
Availability:   Out of stock  
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

Bradley A. Thayer is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, Duluth.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions