When Data Challenges Theory

This volume offers a critical appraisal of the tension between theory and empirical evidence in research on information structure. The main aim of the book is to assess the impact of data that seem to run against commonly accepted tenets in this field. Such 'unexpected' or even 'paradoxical' evidence can indeed be precious for testing the validity of current pragmatic and discourse analyses. The contributions to this book, relying on different theoretical frameworks and delving into cross-linguistic andlanguage-internal variation as well as language contact, tackle a wide range of phenomena that go to the core of the discipline and, in some cases, challenge its foundations. Ultimately, this volume shows that in order to appreciate the relation between linguistic structures and the context, it is of uttermost importance to rely on complex discourse models, which are able to account for the fundamental role of inferential mechanisms and rhetorical strategies exploited by speakers--