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Contrast in cleft sentences

Contrast in cleft sentences. Emilie Destruel (project in collaboration with Dan Velleman, UT Austin) e milie-johnson@uiowa.edu University of Iowa Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt 01/21/2014. Goals for today. Offer background on the notions of focus and contrast ,

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Contrast in cleft sentences

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  1. Contrast in cleft sentences Emilie Destruel (project in collaboration with Dan Velleman, UT Austin) emilie-johnson@uiowa.edu University of Iowa Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt 01/21/2014

  2. Goals for today • Offer background on the notions of focus and contrast, • Motivate the present study, • Provide empirical evidence for the felicity of the English it-cleft, • Refine the notion of contrast in discourse-semantics terms, • Explore cross-linguistics implications. Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  3. Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

  4. What is focus? • Universal category of information structure (Krifka 2008) • Focus evokes a set of alternative propositions which the speaker takes to be salient (Rooth 1992) (1) Q: Who likes Sue? A: [Mary]F likes Sue (alternatives: [Jane]F likes Sue, [Peter]F likes Sue, etc.) A: * Mary likes [Sue]F • Focus does not have to be “new”, but must be unpredictable (not yet in the common ground). (Beaver & Velleman 2011) (2) Gary, Larry, Harry, Barry and Mary all showed up at the party. And you won't believe who got the drunkest. It was_____ ! Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  5. Two types of focus • Informational focus (3) Q: Who is chewing tobacco? A: [John]F is chewing tobacco. • Identificational focus Associated with a semantically stronger interpretation: • Exhaustive • Contrastive • Corrective • Verum (4) S1: Last Halloween, John went as Batman. S2: No, John went as [Spiderman]F. Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  6. How is focus realized? • Different across languages (Büring 2008) (5) Q: Who is chewing tobacco? A: JOHN is chewing tobaccoEnglish A: C’est Jean qui mâche du tabac French A: Está masticandotabaco JuanSpanish • Identificational focus must be realized in a special position, via more marked strategy (Kiss 1998) (6) A: It’s John who is chewing tobacco it-cleft Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  7. The English it-cleft (7) It’s John who is chewing tobacco. • Associated with an exhaustive inference (a) • and/or contrast (b) (a) Nobody other than John is chewing tobacco. (b) John as opposed to, for example Mary, is chewing tobacco. Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  8. Contrast • Previously understood on the basis of semantic terms: • Exclusion of alternatives(Kiss 1998) • Presence of an explicit antecedent focal alternative (Rooth 1992; Schwarschild 1999) • Account for why clefts are good as corrections but sound odd as direct answers to explicit wh-questions. • … but some facts remain unexplained. Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  9. Motivation for the current study • In contexts where the speaker provides a complete, exhaustive answer, the it-cleft is not always produced. • In contexts in which an antecedent is available, speakers may nevertheless choose not to use an it-cleft. (8) S1:Darren sounded really excited about his vacation. I think he’s going to Canada. S2a: Actually, he’s going to Mexico. S2b: ? Actually, it’s Mexico that he’s going to. Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  10. So … • Exhaustivity and presence of a focal antecedent may be necessary conditions, but we think they are not sufficient to explain the natural use of the cleft in English … Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14 What more is needed ?

  11. Specific research questions • Under which conditions are it-clefts actually produced in English? What factors are relevant for their felicity? • How can the notion of contrast be refined to reflect these factors? • What might this mean for the bigger cross-linguistic picture? Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  12. Our proposal Broaden the notion of contrast to include two features: • Linguistic: Rooth-style contrast with a prejacent proposition. • Makes clefts more felicitous. • Directly promotes cleft production. • Metalinguistic: Conflict with hearer’s expectations. • Takes the discourse in an unexpected direction. • Makes canonical sentences less felicitous, which indirectly promotes cleft production. Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  13. Roadmap • Evidence from a production study • Evidence from a rating study • Discussion • Implications for cross-linguistics data & Direction for future work Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  14. Experiment 1 Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14 Production study:The contra-presuppositional use of clefts

  15. Goal of the study • A practical goal: how to elicit felicitous it-clefts? • An observation: natural English it-clefts often seem to be counter-presuppositional … not informational. Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  16. Counter-presuppositional context: • Your friend says: We were planning Amy's surprise party for weeks. I can't believe someone ruined the surprise. Do you have any idea why Alice told her about it? • Correction: Ken. • You say: __________________________________ Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  17. Informational context: • Your friend says: We were planning Amy's surprise party for weeks. I can't believe someone ruined the surprise. Who told her about it? • Answer: Ken. • You say: ___________________________ Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  18. Prediction • Counter-presuppositional contexts will elicit clefts where informational contexts did not. Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  19. Methodology 2 x 2 design: • context (informational/ counter-presuppositional) • grammatical function of element in the answer (subject/ object). • 15 native English speakers (UT undergraduates). • 5 lexicalizations created per context. • 2 versions of the written questionnaire. • Each participant saw a total of 10 experimental stimuli + 5 fillers. • Collected 150 sentences. Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  20. Results (raw numbers) Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  21. Difference in distribution of sentence form across both contexts is highly significant. (χ2(1) = 36.24, p<0.01) • The odds of using a cleft is 13.1 times higher given the counter-presuppositional context than the informational context. • Difference in distribution of sentence form in informational context is highly significant. (z = 7.27, p<0.01) • Difference in distribution of sentence form in counter-presuppositionalcontext is not highly significant. (z = -0.57, p=0.5) Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  22. Interim discussion • It-clefts are actually produced, mostly to offer a correction to a presupposition. They do make really bad direct answers. • While clefts are clearly contrastive, clefting is not the only strategy available to speakers. Canonicals (with prosodic prominence) are also produced. • So, what makes a cleft a better alternative? Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  23. Experiment 2 Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14 Rating study:Degree of belief or degree of at-issueness?

  24. The intuition behind this study… • The production study can only tell us so much about the cleft’s use. • Question: what difference actually matters between the informational & counter-presuppositional contexts? • Intuition: cleft is doing more than just linguistic contrast... Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  25. The cleft seems increasingly better when the speaker’s expectations are expressed more strongly, and the conflict with hearer’s expectations intensifies. (related to Zimmerman 2008, 2011) • Two types of expectations seem important: • Expectations about the world (Strength of belief) • Expectations about the discourse (At-issueness) Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  26. Strength of belief • Expectations involving speaker’s beliefs about the world (common ground) … expressed as assertions or presuppositions. • Gradient notion: “no overt belief” “weak belief” “strong belief” • More strongly expressed beliefs lead to stronger conflict between interlocutors. Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  27. At-issueness • Expectations the speaker has about the direction in which discourse is progressing… … expressed by marking (part of) the proposition as: • At-issue: asserted content. “The main point of the utterance” • Non-at-issue: presupposed content. “propositions which the sentences are not primarily about” (Simons et al. 2010, Tonhauser 2012, Tonhauser et al. 2013) Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  28. Hypothesis Both factors Strength of belief and At-issueness play a role in the felicity of the it-cleft: • clefts will become increasingly felicitous as strength of belief increases, and vice-versa for canonicals. • clefts will become increasingly felicitous when the proposition corrected is not-at-issue, and vice-versa for canonicals. Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  29. Stimuli Contexts: “This bean dip is fantastic. I really want the recipe... • …Who made it ?” Informational • …I guess maybe Shannon made it.” At-issue weak belief • …Shannon made it.” At-issue strong belief • …I can’t believe Shannon made it.” Counter-presuppositional Responses to rate: • Actually, Tim made it. Canonical • Actually, it was Tim who made it. It-Cleft Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  30. Methodology • Felicity judgment task on 1-5 point likert scale: 1- not natural at all, I would never say this. 3- sounds natural, I would sometimes say this. 5- extremely natural, exactly how I would say this. • 12 native English speakers (undergraduates at St Edwards University). • 5 lexicalizations created per context. • Each participant saw a total of 20 experimental stimuli (5 in each context). • Collected a total of 240 ratings. Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  31. Results (raw numbers, collapsed for GF) Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  32. Ratings of canonicals by context(based on 240 observations) Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  33. Ratings of it-clefts by context (based on 240 observations) Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  34. For clefts: ANOVA shows a significant effect of context on rating (p<0.001). Tukey’s HSD test shows significant differences between: • Informational and low contrast (p=0.015) • Informational and strong contrast (p<0.001) • Informational and counter-presuppositional (p<0.001) • For canonicals: ANOVA shows a significant effect of context on rating (p<0.001). Tukey’s HSD test shows significant differences between: • Counter-presuppositionaland informational (p<0.001) • Counter-presuppositional and low contrast (p<0.001) • Counter-presuppositional and strong contrast (p<0.001) Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  35. Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14 DIscussion

  36. Canonicals • Canonicals are significantly worse in the counter-presuppositional context than in the other three. • Strength of belief is not significant, but at-issueness plays a role. • Our interpretation: • The use-conditions of the canonical must make reference to the distinction at-issue/ non-at-issue. • Canonical sentences are preferred when used to address or contradict at-issue (asserted)content. • Canonical sentences signal “things are proceeding as normal” and are infelicitous in contexts where the component contradicted is non-at-issue. Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  37. It-clefts • It-clefts are significantly worse in the informational context than in the other three. • Strength of belief has some effect, but it only slightly significant. • Our interpretation: • All it takes for the clefts to be felicitous is linguistic contrast … • but for clefts to be preferred, the canonical must not be available, and that due to metalinguistic contrast: conflict about the direction of the discourse. Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  38. Competition is key! • Clefts and canonicals are in competition. • Clefts are felicitous when the canonical is a “bad” option. • Specifically, clefts are better than canonicals in the counter-presuppositional context due to a combination of two effects: • Clefts improve because there’s an antecedent. • Canonicals degrade because the antecedent is not-at-issue. Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  39. Summing up • It-clefts are used in English when the corresponding canonical is less felicitous or unavailable. • The notion of contrast must include a metalinguistic component: conflict with hearer’s expectations, specifically about the advancement discourse. • So far, the only statistically significant feature is at-issueness: canonicals are worse when addressing non-at-issue content. • In-line with results on Chinese (Greif 2012) where increased phonetic marking and clefts are produced with corrections of presupposed information. Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  40. Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14 Cross-linguistic implications

  41. What’s next: cross-linguistically • Felicity contexts for clefts (and other strong focus constructions) are supposed to be the same crosslinguistically… • … So why don’t all languages use clefts in the same contexts? • A speculative hypothesis: the felicity conditions for canonical sentences vary. • A canonical sentence signals “things are proceeding as normal” – but what’s “normal” could vary. Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  42. What’s normal? ENGLISH: “Don’t use canonicals to address not-at-issue content.” (normally, we discuss what’s at issue) FRENCH: “Don’t use canonicals for subject focus.” (normally, subjects are old information/ topics) K’ICHEE’: “Don’t use canonicals for transitive subject focus.” (normally, transitive subjects are old information) HUNGARIAN: “Don’t use canonicals for partial answers.” (normally, complete answers are preferred) Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  43. What’s next: English • A more thorough ratings experiment – having twoadditional contexts: • Informational • At-issue weak belief • At-issue strong belief • Not at-issue weak belief • Not at-issue strong belief • Counter-presuppositional • A production experiment covering all contexts. • Run the experiment in the oral modality. • Supplement with corpus data. Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  44. Thank you very much! • And thanks to: • David I. Beaver • Aixin Tan • Malte Zimmermann • Mira Grubic • And our participants (the undergraduates at UT Austin & St Edwards University) Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  45. References • Declerck, R. (1984). The pragmatics of it-cleft and wh-clefts. Lingua, 64, p.251-289. • Greif, M. (2012). Corrective focus in Mandarin Chinese: a question of belief? Muenchen: Lincom Europa. • Katz, J. and E. Selkirk. (2011). Contrastive focus vs. discourse-new: Evidence from phonetic prominence in English. Language, 87, p. 771-816. • Kiss, K. E. (1998). Identicational focus versus information focus. Language, 74, p. 245-273. • Rooth, M. (1992). A theory of focus interpretation. Natural Language Semantics, 1, p. 75-116. • Schwarschild, R. (1999). Givenness, avoidf and other constraints on the placement of accent. Natural Language Semantics, 7, p. 141-177. • Tonhauser, J. (2012). “Diagnosing (non)- at-issue content”. In Proceedings of under-represented languages of the Americas (SULA) 6, p. 239-254. UMass: Amherst, GLSA. • Velleman, D., Beaver, D., Destruel, E., Bumford, D., Onea, E., and Coppock, E. (2012). It-clefts are IT- (inquiry terminating) construction. In Proceedings of SALT22 , p. 441-460. • Zimmermann, M. (2008). Contrastive focus and emphasis. In ActaLinguistica Hungarica , p. 347-360. • Zimmermann, M. (2011). The grammatical expression of focus in West Chadic: Variation and uniformity in and across languages. Linguistics , 49, p. 1161-1211. Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14

  46. Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14 Appendix

  47. Stimuli sample from newly conducted rating experiment (1) • Informational • Speaker A: This bean dip is fantastic.  I really want to get the recipe.  Who brought it? • Speaker B:  Lyle brought it. vs. Speaker B:  It’s Lyle who brought it. • At-issue weak belief • Speaker A:  This bean dip is fantastic.  I really want to get the recipe.  I think Sharon brought it. • Speaker B: No, Lyle brought it. vs. Speaker B:  No, it’s Lyle who brought it. Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14 • Not at-issue weak belief • Speaker A:  This bean dip is fantastic.  I really want to get the recipe.  But Sharon-- who I'm guessing brought it -- already left. • Speaker B: No, Lyle brought it. vs. Speaker B:  No, it’s Lyle who brought it.

  48. Stimuli sample from newly conducted rating experiment (2) • At-issue Strong belief • Speaker A:  This bean dip is fantastic.  I really want to get the recipe.  It turns out that Sharon brought it. • Speaker B: No, Lyle brought it. vs. Speaker B:  No, it’s Lyle who brought it. • Not At-issue Strong belief • Speaker A:  This bean dip is fantastic.  I really want to get the recipe.  But Sharon, who brought it, already left. • Speaker B: No, Lyle brought it. vs. Speaker B:  No, it’s Lyle who brought it. Destruel, Semantics Colloquium Frankfurt, 01/21/14 • Counter-Presuppositional • Speaker A:  This bean dip is fantastic.  I really want to get the recipe.  I can’t believe that Sharon brought it -- she’s normally not a very good cook. • Speaker B: No, Lyle brought it.vs. Speaker B:  No, it’s Lyle who brought it.

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