Focus, Evidentiality and Soft triggers

Abstract

Soft triggers are fairly easily suspendable in context. Two main environments in which this happens have been identified: (a) The presupposition of soft triggers can be suspended by focus (cf. Beaver 2004) (b) Simons (2007) has observed that many soft triggers such as hear, see, believe, discover, know, etc. have semantically parenthetical uses which are not presuppositional. This paper offers a way of predicting these facts in the context of a theory applicable to soft triggers.