At-issueness als propositional prominence

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Daniel Gutzmann
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 565402065

In this project, the notion of “at-issueness” is investigated from the perspective of linguistic prominence with the aim of developing a competition-based model of the gradient prominence of propositions. The central thesis of this project is that at-issueness, as used in semantic and pragmatic research, can be reduced to propositional prominence (in the sense of the Cologne SFB). All properties and behaviors of different types of content that are explained in the literature by at-issueness or non-at-issueness can therefore be traced back to differences in the prominence of the content. (P) At-issueness is propositional prominence. This leads to two empirically verifiable consequences: First, if at-issueness is propositional prominence, it is relational and gradient, just like propositional prominence. (G) At-issueness is relational and gradual. Secondly, prominence is determined by various factors (so-called prominence-lending cues) that make an expression or its referent more prominent. Therefore, if at-issueness is based on prominence, it is also determined by multiple factors and is not an inherent property of certain expressions. (F) At-issueness is determined by multiple factors. In order to test the main thesis that at-issueness is nothing other than propositional prominence, the project will empirically test the two consequences (F) and (G): For if (F) and (G) turn out to be false, (P) would be falsified. In addition to the empirical testing of (F) and (G), the project will also develop theoretical arguments for (P). It will be shown that the different definitions and views of at-issueness in the literature are based on different aspects of prominence. This enables a synthesis of the competing approaches by tracing them back to the actual underlying phenomenon according to (P). (S) The different perspectives on at-issueness are due to a different focus on prominence factors. Should the project support thesis (P), the project will thus contribute to a better theoretical and empirical understanding of at-issueness, reduce the inventory of necessary linguistic categories and open up new perspectives on phenomena at the interface between semantics, pragmatics and syntax by applying the findings on prominence to these phenomena.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants