Operationalizing focus-sensitivity in a cross-linguistic context
Deniz Özyıldız, Ciyang Qing, Floris Roelofsen, Wataru Uegaki, Maribel Romero
August 2024 

A number of analyses of clause-embedding predicates make crucial reference to the notion of focus-sensitivity. Whether a predicate is focus-sensitive or not is argued to affect mood selection (Villalta, 2008), homogeneity inferences (Wehbe and Flor, 2022), and compatibility with (different kinds of) interrogative complements (Romero, 2015; Uegaki and Sudo, 2019). This makes it important to be able to decide reliably whether a given clause-embedding predicate, in a given language, is focus-sensitive or not. In this paper, we critically assess the applicability, within and across languages, of three empirical tests for focus-sensitivity: One based on truth value judgments; another one based on judgments of coherence or contradiction; and a third one, our original proposal, based on judgments about the presence or absence of a particular inference. We identify the main limitations of each test, and suggest how they can be used in unison to provide a diagnosis of focus-sensitivity that is reliable, and that minimizes effort on the part of researchers and language consultants.

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/007004 (please use that when you cite this article)
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keywords:	focus sensitivity, attitude predicates, semantic fieldwork methodology, cross-linguistic data collection, semantics
previous versions:	v1 [December 2022]
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