A QUD-based analysis of non-at-issue expressions in naturalistic data

TitreA QUD-based analysis of non-at-issue expressions in naturalistic data
Publication TypeManuscrit
Année de publication2020
AuthorsBrunetti, Lisa, Kordula De Kuthy, and Arndt Riester
Mots-clésannotation, conventional implicatures., discourse structure, information structure, naturalistic data, non-at-issue, questions under discussion
Abstract

A new definition of non-at-issue (NAI) material in terms of optional information is proposed, which is based on an explicit method of reconstructing the Question Under Discussion and the information structure of utterances in naturalistic data (Riester et al 2018). According to this definition, verb and sentence modifiers share important properties with NAI material. We therefore argue that these expressions may represent NAI material, and apply classic diagnostics for non-at-issueness to them. We further show that such expressions are only ‘part-time’ NAI triggers, namely, unlike supplements or other well-known NAI content, their NAI status varies depending on the context. We focus in particular on temporal and locative modifiers and on conditional clauses in order to show such a property. We finally discuss the position and status of NAI expressions in the QUD tree, showing that such expressions may, but are not always allowed to, have a place in that tree.