The study uses a novel experimental method to investigate contextual factors claimed in the theoretical literature to license the use of Hungarian pre-verbal focus. These factors are: (i) identification, (ii) contrast, (iii) availability of a set on which the focus operates and (iv) whether this set is explicit or implicit. We tested the effects of these factors using online surveys in which respondents read short texts describing a context and saw a cloud of randomly arranged words. The experimental task was to create sentences that naturally fit the context by clicking the words in the cloud. Results show that narrow identification and contrast reliably predict the use of pre-verbal focus as does the availability of a set regardless of explicitness.

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