Inferable and Partitive Indefinites in Topic Position

Klaus von Heusinger; Umut Özge

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Chapter 5 Inferable and Partitive Indefinites in Topic Position

于Information Structuring in Discourse

著者：

Klaus von Heusinger

Klaus von Heusinger
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Umut Özge

Umut Özge
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类型:: 章节

Page Range:: 112–140

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004436725_006

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Abstract

The topic position in a sentence is reserved for familiar and/or referential arguments (Kuno, 1972; Reinhart, 1981; Portner & Yabushita, 2001). Thus, the typical topic is a definite expression such as a pronoun, a proper name or a definite noun phrase. However, indefinites can appear in topic position if they are referential, i.e. specific or generic. Following Prince (1981c) we argue that indefinite noun phrases can also be topics if they are weakly familiar, i.e. discourse-linked. We assume that there are (at least) two different ways to link an indefinite to the previous discourse: (i) partitive indefinites are linked to the discourse by a contextually established membership relation (Prince, 1981c; Enç, 1991); (ii) inferable indefinites (Prince, 1981b, 1992) are linked via the concepts associated with the descriptive part of the indefinite and the anchor expression. We present the results of acceptability rating studies that support the following claims: (i) indefinites as topics are in general acceptable, but less so than indefinites in non-topic position; (ii) indefinites in topic position are better rated if they are discourse-linked; (iii) inferable indefinites make better topics in comparison to partitive indefinites.

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Information Structuring in Discourse

丛编： Current Research in the Semantics / Pragmatics Interface, 卷： 40

ISBN:: 9789004436725

出版社:: Brill

印刷出版日期:: 23 Nov 2020

Subjects
- Languages and Linguistics

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Chapter 5 Inferable and Partitive Indefinites in Topic Position

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Information Structuring in Discourse

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