Focus (linguistics)

In linguistics, focus (abbreviated ) is a grammatical category that conveys which part of the sentence contributes new, non-derivable, or contrastive information. In the English sentence "Mary only insulted BILL", focus is expressed prosodically by a pitch accent on "Bill" which identifies him as the only person Mary insulted. By contrast, in the sentence "Mary only INSULTED Bill", the verb "insult" is focused and thus expresses that Mary performed no other actions towards Bill. Focus is a cross-linguistic phenomenon and a major topic in linguistics. Research on focus spans numerous subfields including phonetics, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and sociolinguistics. Information structure has been described at length by a number of linguists as a grammatical phenomenon. Lexicogrammatical structures that code prominence, or focus, of some information over other information has a particularly significant history dating back to the 19th century. Recent attempts to explain focus phenomena in terms of discourse function, including those by Knud Lambrecht and Talmy Givón, often connect focus with the packaging of new, old, and contrasting information. Lambrecht in particular distinguishes three main types of focus constructions: predicate-focus structure, argument-focus structure, and sentence-focus structure. Focus has also been linked to other more general cognitive processes, including attention orientation. In such approaches, contrastive focus is understood as the coding of information that is contrary to the presuppositions of the interlocutor. The topic–comment model distinguishes between the topic (theme) and what is being said about that topic (the comment, rheme, or focus). Standard formalist approaches to grammar argue that phonology and semantics cannot exchange information directly (See Fig. 1). Therefore, syntactic mechanisms including features and transformations include prosodic information regarding focus that is passed to the semantics and phonology. Focus may be highlighted either prosodically or syntactically or both, depending on the language.

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Related publications (11)

Related concepts (15)

Related courses (2)

Related lectures (8)

Intonation (linguistics)

In linguistics, intonation is the variation in pitch used to indicate the speaker's attitudes and emotions, to highlight or focus an expression, to signal the illocutionary act performed by a sentence, or to regulate the flow of discourse. For example, the English question "Does Maria speak Spanish or French?" is interpreted as a yes-or-no question when it is uttered with a single rising intonation contour, but is interpreted as an alternative question when uttered with a rising contour on "Spanish" and a falling contour on "French".

Prosody (linguistics)

In linguistics, prosody (ˈprɒsədi,_ˈprɒzədi) is the study of elements of speech that are not individual phonetic segments (vowels and consonants) but which are properties of syllables and larger units of speech, including linguistic functions such as intonation, stress, and rhythm. Such elements are known as suprasegmentals. Prosody may reflect features of the speaker or the utterance: their emotional state; the form of utterance (statement, question, or command); the presence of irony or sarcasm; emphasis, contrast, and focus.

English language

English is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family. It originated in early medieval England and, today, is the most spoken language in the world and the third most spoken native language, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. English is the most widely learned second language and is either the official language or one of the official languages in 59 sovereign states. There are more people who have learned English as a second language than there are native speakers.

Construction Policy seeks to familiarise architecture and engineering students with instruments of policy analysis, evaluation and, eventually, design. This by introducing elements of policy theory, e

This course covers elementary fracture mechanics and its application to the fracture of engineering materials.

Discourse Phenomena in Machine Translation

Lesly Sadiht Miculicich Werlen

Machine Translation (MT) has made considerable progress in the past two decades, particularly after the introduction of neural network models (NMT). During this time, the research community has mostly focused on modeling and evaluating MT systems at the se ...

EPFL2021

Fat navigators based retrospective motion correction strategies for brain magnetic resonance imaging

Frédéric Gretsch

Magnetic resonance resonance (MRI) is a widely used modality to obtain in vivo tissue information. Clinical applications are near countless, and almost all body parts can be examined using an MR scanner. As the method is non invasive, does not use ionizing ...

EPFL2020

Moiré effects produced by superpositions of micro-lens arrays

Thomas Walger

Moiré effects result from the superimposition of repetitive structures. The beauty of these moirés comes from the fact that macroscopic shapes seem to appear from the superposition of layers containing microscopic patterns. In addition, the moirés are dyna ...

EPFL2020

Surface Tension and Contact Angle CH-341: Physical chemistry of interfaces

Explores surface tension, contact angles, and interfacial forces in drops on different surfaces.

Fracture Mechanics: Stress Intensity Factors MSE-424: Fracture of materials

Covers stress intensity factors, crack opening modes, and thickness dependency in fracture mechanics.

The Art of Science Communication ENG-616: Communication in science and technology

Emphasizes the importance of science communication, focusing on gaining support, building trust, and addressing misinformation.