Particles, Maximize Presupposition and discourse management

Additive Linking in Second Language Discourse: Lexical, Syntactic and Discourse Organizational Choices in Intermediate and Advanced Learners of L2 German with L1 French

“…In an empirical study, Eckardt and Fränkel (2012) show that this is also true when particular instructions infl uence discourse structure. In German retellings of short picture stories they found that additive particles were much more r equent when speakers had been instructed to write a story in comparison to a secret agent's protocol that specifi es individual events in relation to pre-established time units ( 9:00 Fred strickt.…”

“…Recent semantic accounts treat additive particles as presupposition triggers that are obligatory when their presuppositions are satisfi ed (Krifka, 1999;Saebø, 2004;Amsili & Beyssade, 2010;Eckardt & Fränkel, 2012), i.e., when the contextual information they evoke is explicitly spelled out in the preceding context. Obligatory uses are ot en exemplifi ed with stretches of discourse such as [10] (r om Amsili & Beyssade, 2010), where the presupposition of aussi in [10b] that some contextually relevant person other than Marie is sick is explicitly spelled out in [10a].…”

“…Without the additive particle, [10b] could be interpreted as a correction of [10a], i.e., signalling that Marie is the only sick person in the relevant context (Amsili & Beyssade, 2010;Eckardt & Fränkel, 2012). A related explanation (Krifka, 1999;Saebø, 2004) assumes that at er hearing the utterance in [10a] about Jean, listeners expect that the speaker will make distinct claims about alternative topics under discussion (otherwise Jean and Mary are sick would be a much more economical solution).…”

“…11:00 Otto liest. 12:00 Fred putzt sich die Zähne ; Eckardt & Fränkel, 2012: 1808. These observations do not explain, however, why the exact same discourse type with the same content can elicit a diff erent amount of additive particles in diff erent languages.…”

Prosodic Focus

“…Maximize Presupposition was first introduced in Heim (1991) to explain the obligatory choice of a definite article over an indefinite article whenever its maximality presupposition is met (hence: #A sun is rising). It has also been implicated in the pressure to use additive operators like also or again whenever they are licensed (Eckardt and Fränkel, 2012) (but see Bade, 2016, for a different view). 11…”