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On D-Trees, Beans, And B-Accents

Linguistics and Philosophy volume 26, pages 511–545 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive pragmatic theory ofcontrastive topic and its relation to focus in English.In discussing various constructions involving contrastive topics,it argues that they make reference to complex, hierarchicalaspects of discourse structure. In this, it follows and spellsout a proposal sketched in Roberts (1996, p. 121ff),using the formal tools found in Büring (1994,1997b). It improves on existing accounts in the accuracy with which it predicts the non-occurrence of the accent patterns associated with focus and contrastive topic, and locates the analysis of contrastive topicswithin a broader picture of discourse and information structure.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Linguistics, UCLA, 3125 Campbell Hall, Box 951543, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1543

    Daniel Büring

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Büring, D. On D-Trees, Beans, And B-Accents. Linguistics and Philosophy 26, 511–545 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025887707652

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Keywords

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Information Structure
  • Computational Linguistic
  • Discourse Structure
  • Broad Picture