SPP 1022 Project FHG

The conceptual planning and linguistic realisation of
focus/background-structures

The task of the project is to model the construction of the focus/background-structure in language production, employing the case of spatial descriptions as an example. This model describes how a speaker plans a pre-linguistic representation based on an estimation of the listener's knowledge and on an internal representation of the state of affairs. The constraints imposed by that pre-linguistic representation trigger the selection of syntactic structures and a carrier for the main accent. This model is to be tested for its adequacy by means of a computer implementation.

The conceptual planning and linguistic realisation of focus/background-structures
The task of the project is to model the construction of the focus/background-structure in language production, employing the case of spatial descriptions as an example. This model describes how a speaker plans a pre-linguistic representation based on an estimation of the listener's knowledge and on an internal representation of the state of affairs. The constraints imposed by that pre-linguistic representation trigger the selection of syntactic structures and a carrier for the main accent. This model is to be tested for its adequacy by means of a computer implementation.

SPP 1022 Language Production

University of Heidelberg
IDF, Plöck 55
D-69117 Heidelberg
Room: 211
Tel.: 0049 - (0)6221 - 54 36 37
Fax: 0049 - (0)6221 - 54 75 97
E-mail: fhg@pc03.idf.uni-heidelberg.de

SPP 1022 Language Production
University of Heidelberg IDF, Plöck 55 D-69117 Heidelberg	Room: 211 Tel.: 0049 - (0)6221 - 54 36 37 Fax: 0049 - (0)6221 - 54 75 97 E-mail: fhg@pc03.idf.uni-heidelberg.de