On the typology of Focus Phenomena

Vries, Lourens de; Dik, Simon C.; Djiang, Sie Ing; Stroomer, Harry; Jong, Jan de; Hoekstra, Teun; Hoffman, M. Camille

doi:10.1515/9783112329603-005

Cited by 27 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…(b) Contrastive Focus expresses a correction with regard to a previous information considered as erroneous. Dik (1980) defines it as Counter-assertive focus, used when one substitutes information, while Gussenhoven (2006) highlights that it implies a straight rejection of an alternative, as in context (2) in which speaker B corrects speaker A's assertion about the identity of the subject.…”

Section: Focus Typesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Focus types in Brazilian Portuguese: Multimodal production and perception

Carnaval

Moraes

Rilliard

2022

DELTA

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This paper aims at describing prosodic focalization as a multimodal phenomenon in Brazilian Portuguese, evaluating the role of two modalities in focus production and perception: audio (A), visual (V), and their combined audiovisual presentation (AV). Five focus types are considered, according to their semantic-pragmatic values: (a) in declarative sentences: (i) IF - informational focus (answer to a previous question, conveying new information), (ii) CF- contrastive (strong) focus (correction of information considered wrong); (iii) ATF - attenuated (weak) focus (proposition of an alternative solution to previous information); (b) in interrogative sentences: (i) INTF - interrogative focus (a new information is requested in the question); (ii) SF - surprise focus (one casts doubt on a previous information). Also, structural factors were evaluated, as focus extension and position in the sentence. After running a multimodal perceptual experiment and developing an acoustic and visual analysis on focus production, results show that multimodality plays a relevant role in focus production and perception. Different acoustic and visual parameters, or configuration of parameters, contribute to conveying distinct meanings, according to each focus type.

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Section: Focus Typesmentioning

confidence: 99%