Sentential logic, discourse and pragmatics of *topic and *focus

This dissertation studies the so-called contrastive topic (CT) in English and Korean. First, it is observed that the discourse functional property similar to the notion of contrastive nun-phrase of Korean is prosodically manifested in English, i.e., by the typical fall-rise of the B pitch accent as opposed to the fall of the A pitch. The B-accented focus, i.e. CT, is analyzed by extending the analysis proposed for the A-accented focus in Wee (1999).;An A-accented focus is defined as a definite focus based on the observation that it can occur only in a context where the existential statement corresponding to the focus frame is entailed by the previous discourse. It is proposed that (i) the presupposition carried by an A-focus has the same meaning as the interpretation of a corresponding anaphoric definite description with the descriptive content of the focus frame and (ii) its assertion is to identify the presupposed definite referent, i.e. the referent with the property of the focus frame, with the focused referent. In this dissertation, the semantic representation of CT, or B-accented focus, is proposed in a way consistent with the analysis for A-accented focus. Specifically, CT requires an implicational logical structure as the sentential semantic representation.;This dissertation shows the following: Theories of focus that define the function or contribution of CT/focus only in terms of the discourse structure where it occurs or felicity condition, as in Rooth (1985, 1992), Roberts (1994) and Buring (1994, 1999), eventually result in missing some significant sentence-internal function of CT/focus. A theory of focus is needed which properly captures the sentential logical structure determined by the semantic subject-predicate pattern induced by the topic/focus of a sentence, as suggested in Peregrin (1996), while reflecting the discourse structure as well. Such an account of focus is provided here, covering both A-accented focus and B-accented focus/CT. Finally, this analysis reveals the boundaries of the pragmatic and the semantic aspects of the phenomena of CT and focus, especially with respect to the notion of contrastiveness.