Chapter 1. Introduction

Object focus marking in Spanish: An investigation using three tasks

“…Methodologists (e.g., Johnson 1992;Mackey & Gass 2005) typically encourage researchers to provide several "independent sources to support the study and its conclusions" (Mackey & Gass 2005: 181). We examine (non-final) object focus with three different tasks because the basic facts of focus in Spanish have been enthusiastically debated, raising the question of whether task characteristics factor into these findings (see Uth & García García 2018).…”

“…These methods, which have been frequently used in the study of other languages, have shown that speakers can and do process contextual appropriateness in real time (Kaiser & Trueswell 2004;Slioussar 2011;Weskott et al 2011). Moreover, while researchers have suggested that methodological choices are relevant (Gabriel 2010;Hoot 2016;Leal, Destruel & Hoot 2018;Uth & García García 2018), few studies systematically examine the effects of task characteristics. In our investigation, we follow in the footsteps of other researchers examining methodological choices (e.g., Grosjean 1998;Plonsky 2015;Gudmestad & Edmonds 2018;Uth & García García 2018;Escandell Vidal & Leonetti 2019), asking whether task characteristics should affect the conclusions we draw from them.…”

“…Moreover, while researchers have suggested that methodological choices are relevant (Gabriel 2010;Hoot 2016;Leal, Destruel & Hoot 2018;Uth & García García 2018), few studies systematically examine the effects of task characteristics. In our investigation, we follow in the footsteps of other researchers examining methodological choices (e.g., Grosjean 1998;Plonsky 2015;Gudmestad & Edmonds 2018;Uth & García García 2018;Escandell Vidal & Leonetti 2019), asking whether task characteristics should affect the conclusions we draw from them. We argue that employing multiple tasks investigating the same phenomenon-a practice known as "methodological triangulation" (Mackey & Gass 2005)-is crucial for understanding the empirical results on focus in Spanish and their theoretical implications.…”

“…How might the characteristics of our production task affect the results and our interpretation of them? First, we must take into account the fact that this data is not from a reading task, which has a particular effect on prosodic realizations (Uth & García García 2018). Since we are mostly interested in the resulting word order, however, we will not discuss this difference at length.…”

The greater the contrast, the greater the potential: On the effects of focus in syntax

“…Different studies present different data, and this contrast seems to align with the methodology adopted: introspection-based judgements describe a grammaticality ban on preverbal foci in the case of information focus, including the case of preverbal subjects. On the contrary, experimental and quantitative investigations report cases of fronted information foci in answer to wh-questions, especially in relation to the subject of the sentence (see García García 2018 andHeidinger 2020 for an overview of this tension). 12 According to Zubizarreta (1998), narrow foci, including subjects, must occur at the end of the sentence, where they will receive the nuclear stress, as shown in (32) (see also Ordóñez 2000;Büring & Gutiérrez-Bravo 2001;Gutiérrez-Bravo 2008).…”