Alternative Sets in Language Processing

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Nicole Gotzner

   Pages 1-10

3. Theoretical and Empirical Background

   • Nicole Gotzner

   Pages 11-40

4. Long-Term Representation of the Entire Alternative Set

   • Nicole Gotzner

   Pages 41-69

5. The Mechanisms of Activation and Competitive Inhibition

   • Nicole Gotzner

   Pages 71-101

6. What’s Included in the Set of Alternatives?

   • Nicole Gotzner

   Pages 103-122

7. Contrastive Pitch Accents and Focus Particles

   • Nicole Gotzner

   Pages 123-138

8. Conclusions

   • Nicole Gotzner

   Pages 139-159

9. Back Matter

   Pages 161-162

   PDF

This book presents a novel experimental approach to investigating the mental representation of linguistic alternatives. Combining theoretical and psycholinguistic questions concerning the nature of alternative sets, it sheds new light on the theory of focus and the cognitive mechanisms underlying the processing of alternatives. In a series of language comprehension experiments, the author shows that intonational focus and focus particles such as ‘only’ shape the representation of alternatives in a listener’s mind in a fundamental way. This book is relevant to researchers interested in semantics, pragmatics, language processing and memory.

• mental representations
• long-term memory
• alternative semantics
• focus intonation
• prosodic focus
• delayed recall
• competitive inhibition
• implicatures

• Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany

  Nicole Gotzner

Nicole Gotzner is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for General Linguistics (ZAS) in Berlin, Germany. She is affiliated with the DFG Priority Programme Xprag.de “New Pragmatic Theories Based on Experimental Evidence”. Her research combines semantic and pragmatic theory with language processing and child language acquisition.

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