Alternative Sets in Language Processing

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The book explores a novel experimental approach to understanding how linguistic alternatives are mentally represented. It integrates theoretical and psycholinguistic inquiries, revealing insights into the theory of focus and the cognitive processes involved in alternative processing. Through a series of language comprehension experiments, the author demonstrates how intonational focus and focus particles like 'only' significantly influence listeners' mental representations of alternatives. It is particularly relevant for researchers in semantics, pragmatics, language processing, and memory.