front cover -- copyright -- table of contents -- front matter -- Preface -- body -- 1. Language and Meaning -- Pragmatics and the study of grammar -- Competence and performance in theory and in method -- Pragmatics and the dynamicisation of grammar -- Focus and theory at the interfaces -- Semantics and the interpretation of natural languages -- Fundamentals -- Inference and semantics -- Pragmatic contributions to prepositional semantics -- Pragmatics and the assumption of compositionality -- Consequences of compositionality: illustrations from domain restriction -- A comparability restriction in exclusive readings -- Domain restricting indexicals -- Semantics: what it means -- Summary 1 -- 2. Relevance Theory and Implications for Linguistic Structure -- Relevance Theory -- Some misconceptions about RT -- RT as a reduction of Gricean pragmatics -- Practical falsifiability -- A different perspective on language structure -- Encoded meaning as constraints on inference -- Inference in the course of processing -- Syntax: static structures versus instructions for interpretation -- Static syntax is unnecessary -- Abstraction and the accessibility of the object of study -- Grammar from a parsing perspective -- Well-formedness without syntactic representations -- The argument from production and parsing -- Formal and informal analysis -- Summary 2 -- 3. The Hungarian Data -- Overview 3 -- The data -- The basic positions of the Hungarian sentence -- Immediately pre-verbal position -- The interpretation of focus -- Verbal modifiers -- Other PV elements -- The focus position: syntactic analyses -- 'Single position' analyses -- The verb movement analysis -- Independent movement to multiple PV positions -- Summary: looking beyond conventional syntactic analysis -- 4. Focus and Grammar -- Overview 4 -- The broader notion of focus -- The meaning of'focus'.

Focus and the encoded/inferred distinction -- A dynamic, RT approach to English -- The general meaning of focus (and presupposition) -- The nature of 'focus position' foci -- There is no simple'focus position' -- Narrow' and 'broad' focus -- Exhaustivity: are there two kinds of focus? -- Encoded versus inferred exhaustive focus -- The case against inferred exhaustivity -- The significance of the argument -- Exhaustivity as an inference in context -- Exhaustivity as an unmarked reading -- Dependence on (psychological) context -- Alternatives emerge from context -- Different contexts -- different kinds of exhaustivity -- Non-exhaustive narrow foci are linguistically marked -- The it-cleft translation -- Quantity implicature -- Quantity implicature in RT -- The failure of encoded focus: the absence of exhaustivity -- Narrow focus and the presupposition of eventualities -- The costs and benefits of presupposed eventualities -- Non-exhaustive narrow foci and eventualities -- Summary 4 -- 5. Focus and Quantifier Distribution -- Overview 5 -- Quantificational projections and procedures -- Szabolcsi (1997b) -- Against the PredOp/Focus distinction -- The apparent difference -- Numerals, narrow focus and scalar implicature -- Constraints on TP and QP -- The monotonicity constraint -- Witness set representations and information structure -- Constraints on PV -- Proportionality and PV -- The apparent counterexamples -- 'Counterexample' 1: a complex determiner -- 'Counterexample' 2: complex QNP-internal information structure -- 'Counterexample'3: a different kind of proportionality -- Proportionals in PV and the idea of'counting' -- Contrastive focus on non-PV quantifiers -- Summary 5 -- 6. Dynamic Structured Meanings: Predication and Information Structure -- Overview 6 -- Focus and predication -- Focus and focus frame as predicate and logical subject.

Main predication -- Basic inferences over main predicates -- Eventualities and structured meanings -- Eventuality-based semantics -- Herburger (2000): structured eventualities -- Making structured meanings dynamic: epsilon terms -- The creation of prepositional forms -- The epsilon operator -- The epsilon operator with event variables -- Hungarian syntax and main predication -- Simple worked examples -- Topi>comment -- Narrow focus -- Two readings of main predicate verbs -- Summary 6 -- 7. Verbal Modifiers and Main Predication -- Overview 7 -- Verbal 'prefix'particles and resultatives -- Why the VM, not the verb, is the unmarked main predicate -- VMs as unmarked main predicates: empirical support -- Other VMs -- Barenominals -- Adverbs -- Locatives -- Summary 7 -- 8. 'Aspectual Constructions' and Negation -- Overview 8 -- The 'existential/evidential' and 'progressive' constructions -- The 'abstract operator' analysis -- The AspP analysis -- The main predication analysis -- Explaining the'progressive construction' -- Explaining the'existential construction' -- Negation -- Negation and main predication -- The homogeneity of negation -- 'Constituent negation' -- Simple sentential negation -- Focus > nem > V -- Why nem is pre-verbal -- Negation and the interpretive relevance of lexicalisation -- Summary 8 -- 9. Summary and Conclusions -- Theoretical concerns -- Empirical illustrations -- Implications and further research -- back matter -- Bibliography -- Index.