Information Structure: Towards an integrated formal theory of pragmatics
A framework for pragmatic analysis is proposed which treats discourse as a game, with context as a scoreboard organized around the questions under discussion by the interlocutors. The framework is intended to be coordinated with a dynamic compositional semantics. Accordingly, the context of utteranc...
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doaj-3a116a573df04c3b8f9a3de67d4c6bee2020-11-25T02:22:45ZengLinguistic Society of AmericaSemantics and Pragmatics1937-89122012-12-015016910.3765/sp.5.62501Information Structure: Towards an integrated formal theory of pragmaticsCraige Roberts0The Ohio State UniversityA framework for pragmatic analysis is proposed which treats discourse as a game, with context as a scoreboard organized around the questions under discussion by the interlocutors. The framework is intended to be coordinated with a dynamic compositional semantics. Accordingly, the context of utterance is modeled as a tuple of different types of information, and the questions therein — modeled, as is usual in formal semantics, as alternative sets of propositions — constrain the felicitous flow of discourse. A requirement of Relevance is satisfied by an utterance (whether an assertion, a question or a suggestion) iff it addresses the question under discussion. Finally, it is argued that the prosodic focus of an utterance canonically serves to reflect the question under discussion (at least in English), placing additional constraints on felicity in context. http://dx.doi.org/10.3765/sp.5.6 <a href="http://semantics-online.org/sp-bib/roberts-2012-main-article.bib">BibTeX info</a>http://semprag.org/article/view/2228information structure, formal pragmatics, questions, assertion, focus |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Craige Roberts |
spellingShingle |
Craige Roberts Information Structure: Towards an integrated formal theory of pragmatics Semantics and Pragmatics information structure, formal pragmatics, questions, assertion, focus |
author_facet |
Craige Roberts |
author_sort |
Craige Roberts |
title |
Information Structure: Towards an integrated formal theory of pragmatics |
title_short |
Information Structure: Towards an integrated formal theory of pragmatics |
title_full |
Information Structure: Towards an integrated formal theory of pragmatics |
title_fullStr |
Information Structure: Towards an integrated formal theory of pragmatics |
title_full_unstemmed |
Information Structure: Towards an integrated formal theory of pragmatics |
title_sort |
information structure: towards an integrated formal theory of pragmatics |
publisher |
Linguistic Society of America |
series |
Semantics and Pragmatics |
issn |
1937-8912 |
publishDate |
2012-12-01 |
description |
A framework for pragmatic analysis is proposed which treats discourse as a game, with context as a scoreboard organized around the questions under discussion by the interlocutors. The framework is intended to be coordinated with a dynamic compositional semantics. Accordingly, the context of utterance is modeled as a tuple of different types of information, and the questions therein — modeled, as is usual in formal semantics, as alternative sets of propositions — constrain the felicitous flow of discourse. A requirement of Relevance is satisfied by an utterance (whether an assertion, a question or a suggestion) iff it addresses the question under discussion. Finally, it is argued that the prosodic focus of an utterance canonically serves to reflect the question under discussion (at least in English), placing additional constraints on felicity in context.
http://dx.doi.org/10.3765/sp.5.6
<a href="http://semantics-online.org/sp-bib/roberts-2012-main-article.bib">BibTeX info</a> |
topic |
information structure, formal pragmatics, questions, assertion, focus |
url |
http://semprag.org/article/view/2228 |
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AT craigeroberts informationstructuretowardsanintegratedformaltheoryofpragmatics |
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