# Operationalizing focus-sensitivity in a cross-linguistic context

## TL;DR

The paper introduces a new method to detect focus-sensitive predicates that works consistently across different languages.

## Contribution

A novel combined test using inferential and truth-value judgments for identifying focus-sensitivity in predicates.

## Key findings

- The combined test shows better cross-linguistic uniformity than alternative methods.
- The method is more generalizable across different clause-embedding predicates.
- Truth-value judgments alone are less effective than the combined approach.

## Abstract

This paper evaluates empirical methods for detecting the focus-sensitivity of clause-embedding predicates, with the objective of making them applicable to predicates within and across languages. Our positive proposal is a test based on a combination of inferential judgments and truth-value judgments. We compare this method with three alternatives: one based on truth-value judgments alone; another based on judgments of coherence or contradiction; and a third one based on inferential judgments alone. We conclude that our combined test is more successful than its alternatives in terms of cross-linguistic uniformity (i.e., it is applicable to different languages with as few language-specific elements involved as possible) and item generalizability (i.e., there is a clear recipe for how to carry out the test for any clause-embedding predicate).