Focus structure in generative grammar: An integrated syntactic, semantic and intonational approach (review)

Carsten Breul’s work, set in the generative framework, provides an integrated theory of the intonational, syntactic, and semantic aspects of the distinction between categorical, identificational, and thetic sentences. This conception of focus structure is adopted and adapted from Knud Lambrecht’s work (Information structure and sentence form: Topic, focus and the mental representation of discourse referents, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), a work that is not set in the generative framework. The discussions are focused mainly on English.

There are ten chapters in the book. Ch. 1, ‘Introduction and overview’ (1–10), introduces the notion of focus structure. The examples in 1 characterize the distinction between categorical, identificational, and thetic structure.

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a. Categorical focus

 Q: What happened to your car?

 A: My car/It broke DOWN.

b. Identificational focus

 Q: I heard your motorcycle broke down?

 A: My CAR broke down.

c. Thetic focus

 Q: What happened?

 A: My CAR broke down.

Ch. 2, ‘The syntactic framework and the FocP-hypothesis’ (11–43), begins with the version of the minimalist program on which the work is based. The second section presents the work’s guiding idea, the FocP hypothesis, according to which every root clause manifests syntactically one of the focus structure types. If there are [ − foc] features entering the derivation of a root clause, then the root clause has categorical focus structure. Similarly, the presence of [ + foc] features indicates an identificational focus structure, and if there are no focus features involved, then the root clause has thetic focus structure. Correspondingly, every categorical and identificational root clause is headed by a functional phrase FocP that immediately dominates IP. In a thetic root clause, IP is the topmost node. Ch. 3, ‘A review of previous work’ (45–74), surveys works related to information structure and fronting (topicalization, preposing, etc.). Ch. 4, ‘Information structure and focus structure’ (75–107), discusses how the realization of a specific type of focus structure in an utterance is conditioned by its context. Ch. 5, ‘Features, checking theory and semantic implications’ (109–27), discusses the feature-checking mechanism and develops a version of checking theory that underlies much of the syntactic analysis in Ch. 7.

In Ch. 6, ‘Intonational aspects of the FocP-hypothesis’ (129–56), it is shown that sentences with expletive there or it in clause-initial position are unambiguous and of the thetic type. In all other cases, where the sentence string is ambiguous between the categorical and identificational types, intonation helps to disambiguate the focus structure. Ch. 7, ‘FocP-related English syntax’ (157–232), is largely a syntactic discussion of fronting in English. Ch. 8, ‘Semantic issues related to the FocP-hypothesis’ (233–86), claims that the truth-conditional meaning is dependent on the type of focus structure, and that the integration of focus structure into syntax is capable of accommodating semantic effects that have traditionally been accommodated in terms of covert LF movement, notably QR. The first section of Ch. 9, ‘Aspects of the syntax of languages other than English’ (287–331), shows how, in principle, each of the logically possible and crosslinguistically attested basic constituent orders (SVO, SOV, VSO, etc.) can be derived within a conception of feature and constituent movement as discussed in Ch. 5. Finally, Ch. 10, ‘Summary and general conclusion’ (333–37), wraps up the work with hints at other possible research directions.