Meaning of Topic and Focus

This study provides an illuminating and ground-breaking account of the complex interaction of intonational phenomena semantics and pragmatics. Based on examples from German and English and centred on an analysis of the fall-rise intonation contour a semantic interpretation for two different pitch accents - Focus and Topic - is developed. The cross-sentence as well as the sentence internal semantic effects of these accents follow from the given treatment. The account is based on Montogovian possible world semantics and Chomskian generative syntax.