Information Structure

The first volume of the series is devoted to the subjects "information structure" and "contrast". The working hypothesis is that, apart from the use of lexical indication, the expression of contrast vs. correction is primarily carried by the intonation contour as a means for indicating scope and focus in negating constructions. The papers in this volume proceed from the premise that the information structure is preformed conceptually, and on articulation in the dynamic context is then portioned and linearized, mapped onto the syntactic representation via the semantic representation, and finally realized intonationally. The findings are partly based on neurolinguistic and psycholinguistic experiments.

Autorentext

Die Herausgeberin ist Professorin für "Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft" an der Universität Leipzig.

Klappentext
Human languages are very economical systems of knowledge, which usually contribute to the formation and interpretation of an utterance only what cannot be supplied by other conceptual systems. Thus, conceptual underspecification and context-dependence are essential properties, which vary from one particular language to the next in dependence on the structural make-up a given language belongs to. The book series "Language, Context and Cognition" explores the essential properties of natural languages in focusing on their lexical entries, on the interaction of their grammatical subsystems as well as on the text production methods, from both synchronic and diachronic viewpoints. Research on the conceptual underspecification of language requires close cooperation of linguists with researchers in cognitive and neuroscience, with phoneticians, logicians and with the experts of pragmatic and experimental disciplines, but it also needs interdisciplinary cooperation with students of non-linguistic conceptual systems. Editorial board (vol. 10 onwards) Dr. habil. Kai Alter (Newcastle University Medical School) Prof. Dr. Ulrike Demske (Universität des Saarlandes) Prof. Dr. Ewald Lang (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) Prof. Dr. Rosemarie Lühr (Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena) Prof. Dr. Thomas Pechmann (Universität Leipzig) Prof. Dr. Richard Wiese (Universität Marburg)