Focus

焦点

A term used by some linguists in a two-part analysis of sentences which distinguishes between the information assumed by speakers, and that which is at the center of their communication interest. “Focus” in this sense is opposed to presupposition. For example, in the sentence, “It was Mary who came to tea”, Mary is the focus. Taking such factors in to account is an importance aspect of inter-sentence relationships: it would not be possible to have the above sentence as the answer to the question “What did Mary do”, but only to “Who came to tea”.

有些语言学家在分析句子时用该术语区分两种信息，一种是说话人己设定的信息，一种是他们在信递中最关注的信息。这一意义上的“焦点”与预设相对立。例如，在句子“来喝茶的是玛丽”中，“玛丽”是焦点。考虑这些因素是考察句子间关系的一个重要方面：上面这个句子不能作为 “玛丽干了什么”的回答，只能是 “谁来喝了茶”的回答。