Illocution and Focus at the semantics-pragmatics interface in Umpithamu (Cape York, Australia)

Abstract

This article analyses the interaction between semantic and pragmatic information in illocution and focus marking in Umpithamu (Cape York, Australia), and it uses these data to argue that while FDG can deal with the basics of the semantics-pragmatics interface, it lacks three crucial features to represent the interaction between semantic and pragmatic information in an adequate way. The marking of illocution illustrates the importance of preferred interpretations that are halfway between encoded and incidental aspects of interpretation, driven by general pragmatic principles. While such preferred interpretations are crucial from the perspective of diachrony and language processing, they do not have a clear place in the FDG model. The marking of focus illustrates the existence of categories in the case system that combine interpersonal and representational aspects of organization in a nonarbitrary way, which can form a diachronic pathway between the interpersonal and the representational levels. While the synchronically dual nature of categories is easy to represent in FDG, the nonarbitrary link between the two functions, and its potential diachronic consequences, do not have an obvious place in the model.