Talk by Gerhard Jaeger
Only Updates. On the Dynamics of the Focus Particle {\em only\/}
The paper tries to combine Veltman's['90] Update Semantics with
Groenendijk/Stokhof's['84] analysis of the semantics of questions. It is
assumed that both interrogative and declarative sentences denote the same
type of updates over contexts, and that contexts are sets of mutually
exclusive propositions. The difference between questions and answers is
reflected by the fact that the former are distributive and not generally
eliminative and the latter vice versa. The semantics proposed allows to
reconstruct the intuitive notion of an appropriate answer to a question
formally. As the most important empirical pay-off, it enables us to carry
over Rooth's['92] insights into the dependency between the semantics of
questions and focus without making usage of indexing mechanisms or
pragmatic principles.
Paul Dekker, November 2, 1995