Deriving the properties of structural focus

The paper has proposed a theory of structural focus which analyzes focus movement as the establishment of a syntactic predicate-subject structure, expressing specificational predication. The subject of the specificational construction, an open sentence, determines a set, which the predicate (the focus-moved constituent) identifies referentially. The subject of predication is associated with an existential presupposition (only an existing set can be referentially identified). The referential identification of a set consists in the exhaustive listing of its members – hence the exhaustivity of focus. It is claimed that this analysis also accounts for properties of focus movement constructions that current alternative theories cannot explain