This dissertation develops a theory of contrastive topics (CTs)—what they mean, and how
they are realized. I give a compositional semantics for CT constructions, built on the idea that …

The semantic notion of contrastiveness is frequently mentioned in studies of focus,
particularly in connection with such empirical issues as exhaustive answers in question …

The analysis of contrastive topics introduced in Büring 1997b and further developed in
Büring 2003 relies on distinguishing two types of constituents that introduce alternatives: the …

Mandarin focus particles systematically have heterogeneous uses. By examining details of
two focus particles jiu 'only'and dou 'even', this paper explores the hypothesis that varieties …

This dissertation presents a precise, unified and explanatory theory of human conversation,
centered on two broad phenomena: exhaustivity implications and intonational meaning. In a …

This article examines the knowledge of topic and subject particles in heritage speakers and
L2 learners of Japanese and Korean. We assume that topic marking is mediated at the …

Previous processing studies have shown that constituents that are prosodically marked as
focus lead to an activation of alternatives. We investigate the processing of constituents that …

This chapter provides an introduction to the phenomenon of prosodic focus, as well as to the
theory of Alternative Semantics. Alternative Semantics provides an insightful account of what …

Mandarin has a special construction widely known as a 'wh-conditional', in which both the
antecedent clause and the consequent clause are wh-clauses. Wh-conditionals are of …

This thesis is concerned with NP/DP argument reordering and the question of what licenses
it formally and interpretatively. Its primary focus is on the syntax of Russian. It is argued that …