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ERIC Number: ED533972
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2011
Pages: 317
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: ISBN-978-1-1249-3489-1
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Inclusive Focus Particles in English and Korean
Kang, Sang-gu
ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, State University of New York at Buffalo
When discussing focus particles, it has been common practice to rely on the dichotomy of inclusive vs. exclusive particles, "a la" Konig (1991). Inclusive focus particles are often further divided into scalar particles, such as "also", "too", and "either", and non-scalar particles, such as "even". In this thesis, I advance a comparative analysis of the major inclusive focus particles in English, which reveals more complicated pictures of the particles concerned. I show that "also" and "even" share far fewer properties than previously assumed. It turns out that "also" is additive, anaphoric, and anti-scalar, while "even" is non-additive, non-anaphoric, and scalar. This finding suggests that the traditional classification of focus particles need to be reconsidered, through more in-depth investigation into the semantics of individual particles. In addition, the realization of the disparity of the two English particles leads one to cast doubt on the widely accepted view that Korean focus particle -"to" is ambiguous between the readings of "also" and "even". Using the same criterion as with the English particles, I provide a univocal approach characterizing -"to" as additive, not anaphoric, and underspecified with respect to scalarity. Another finding in this descriptive study is that other than being focus particles, "also", "even" and -"to" shares one important role: they impose meta-propositional constraint on the propositions involved. I posit the Parity Condition and the Co-Support Condition for "also", and the Non-Entailment Condition and the Co-Argumentation Condition for -"to". As for "even", I argue, in the footsteps of Kay and Ducrot & Anscombre, that its scalar implicatum is a meta-propositional operator relating the proposition expressed by the sentence containing the particle and a non-monotonous inference supported by this proposition. Finally, I discuss the information status of the three particles, and conclude, against the presupposition approaches, that the existential implicata conveyed by "also" and -"to" contributes to the assertorical content of the sentence containing them, and maintain the traditional view, "a la" Grice, that the scalar implicatum invoked by "even" is a conventional implicature. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway, P.O. Box 1346, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Tel: 800-521-0600; Web site: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml
Publication Type: Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A