Quantifier focus in Serbian

This paper presents a study on the interpretation of anaphoric
reference to preceding quantified expressions in Serbian. Quantifiers not
only differ in the proportions they denote but also, depending on their
polarity, in their properties of assigning referential focus. In an off-line
judgement task, we investigated the focus properties of four Serbian
quantifiers. The results show that positive and negative quantifiers
behave differently and focus different discourse referents. This is in line
with what we know from other languages. However, Serbian differs from
English in that negative quantifiers are more open to different set focuses.
Our conclusion from the study is that negative and positive quantified
expressions in Serbian show, in principle, the same categorical differences
that we find in other languages. The effect of polarity on referential focus
seems to be an effect not particular to English. However, there are subtle
differences between negative quantifiers in Serbian and English.