This book presents a novel experimental approach to investigating the
mental representation of linguistic alternatives. Combining theoretical
and psycholinguistic questions concerning the nature of alternative
sets, it sheds new light on the theory of focus and the cognitive
mechanisms underlying the processing of alternatives. In a series of
language comprehension experiments, the author shows that intonational
focus and focus particles such as 'only' shape the representation of
alternatives in a listener's mind in a fundamental way. This book is
relevant to researchers interested in semantics, pragmatics, language
processing and memory.