Processing patterns of focusing in Spanish (original) (raw)

Different kinds of focusing relations that encode different assumptions are expected to exhibit different kinds of processing patterns (Loureda et al. 2015, Lowder and Gordon 2015, Nadal et al. 2016). In this paper, we present findings of an eye tracking study that take under consideration two different types of focusing relations in pragmatic scales in Spanish (Rooth 1985, König 1991, Rooth 1992, Kenesei 2006, Portolés 2007, 2009): a1) unmarked identificational focus that have primarily identificational value and a2) unmarked restrictive focus that present a conceptual restriction and b) contrastive focus, marked by the focus operator incluso (even) that due to its procedural meaning restricts the inferential processes in communication (Karttunen and Peters 1979, Blakemore 1987, 1992, Portolés 2007). According to the findings, this paper claims that (1) utterances with unmarked and marked focus do not present different global processing efforts (utterances with marked focus have more encoded information but the focus operator generates a control and acceleration effect, (2) utterances with unmarked and marked foci present different intern processing patterns: unmarked (conceptual) and marked (procedural) patterns and (3) that different processing patterns lead to different inferential processes. Key words: focusing patterns, unmarked focus, marked focus, procedural meaning, focus operator, incluso, experimental pragmatics