Degrees of Explicitness

This book explores factors relevant in the choices speakers and writers make in regard to explicitness of reference to the subjects and objects in their utterances. Bulgarian is a particularly felicitous target language for this type of study, since it possesses a rich inventory of available packaging techniques, ranging from zero reference, to various stressed and unstressed single forms, to actual doubled (“reduplicated”) constructions. The study systematically addresses the need to avoid referential and grammatical ambiguity, and the crucial influence of emphasis. Another, and perhaps most interesting central factor is the status of what the communication is about, which is assessed on two different levels. The book makes use of data from both published Bulgarian fiction and naturally occurring oral conversations. The fundamental similarities between these modes of communication with respect to noun phrase selection is demonstrated, but explanations are also proposed for the observable differences.

Vera Gribanova, University of California, Santa Cruz:
Leafgren's study is the result of many years of work on this topic, as evidenced by his extensive knowledge of the issues and the literature surrounding them, his ability to work carefully and accurately with a wide array of data, and his previous publications on related topics. The monograph is well-written, and the bibliography and index are accurate. [...] The study should be of interest to linguists of various backgrounds, including those who work on Slavic languages, discourse analysis, information structure theory, or any combination of these.