Association with Focus and Choice Functions ? A Binding Approach

Abstract

In a discussion of the scopal properties of focus, Rooth [(1996)The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory. B. Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 271–298] notes that association with focus, indefinites and in situ wh-phrases appear to form a class of island-insensitive phenomena, and suggests that this is the natural consequence of a common semantic property. In this paper, I analyse the hypothesis that this lowest common denominator is an analysis based on choice functions. Generalizing Reinhart,s [1994 Technical Report OTS-WP-TL-94-003, OTS Working Papers, Utrecht University] binding analysis to association with focus, I propose that – similar to the case of indefinites and wh-phrases – focus introduces a choice function variable that operates on a contextually given set of alternatives, and gets bound by a coindexed focus-sensitive operator like, for example, the particle only. Having shown that this approach accounts for a wide range of data, it is compared to a similar one made in Wold [(1996)Proceedings of SALT VI. Ithaca, N.Y., pp. 311–328], and, in the light of the discussion of ‘association with focus phrase’, a possible extension of the analysis is taken into consideration.