Properties of Syntactic Focus in Some Free Word Order Languages

Abstract

This study proposes that a certain type of focus involving exhaustive interpretation triggers syntactic movement and further examines its semantico-pragmatic factors across free word order languages such as Hungarian, Korean, Japanese, and Russian. Given that the focus item, which is interpreted as exhaustive, occupies dislocated positions in the four languages, the focus is claimed to bear a strong feature [+exhaustive] in numeration and to undergo syntactic movement in order to have the feature checked off before Spell-out. Under this claim, the syntactic movement is naturally linked with the focus interpretation, avoiding the violation of Inclusiveness Principle. Furthermore, the current study discusses parametric differences in realizing exhaustive focus from the syntactic perspective.