Pragmatics seminar: At-issueness

A single utterance can convey multiple propositions at the same time, and these propositions don't always have the same status in a discourse. For example, all of the following sentences convey the proposition `Al owns a bicycle', but not necessarily in the same way

Al, who owns a bicycle, is over there.

Bea thinks Al owns a bicycle.

Bea is glad that Al owns a bicycle.

Al owns a bicycle, Bea said.

One kind of discourse status that researchers have debated for decades is about what constitutes the `main point' of an utterance, and what propositions are `at issue' at any given point in a discourse. In which of these sentences is the proposition `Al owns a bicycle' the `main point' of the utterance? What does that really mean, and how can we diagnose it? What linguistic, conventional, or conversational constraints are at play in determining what can have this status? In this course, we will explore these questions and more, and trace the development of the notion(s, plural!) of `at-issueness' over time. Along the way, we will ask how this status relates to a variety of related and sometimes-overlapping topics and ideas: Topic, relevance, the Question under Discussion, update proposals, discourse coherence, discourse structure, and more.