I present a derivational analysis of the construal of the focus structure of the
sentence. I propose that the [+F] feature is an optional formal feature that can be assigned
to multiple tokens of the numeration. Hence, the focus structure is derived via Merge
(creation of a set) in a strictly compositional way. I argue that with the adoption of this
theory we can circumvent many of the empirical and theoretical shortcomings of previous
Nuclear Stress Rule-based approaches, and, furthermore, that it allows us to account for
split focus constructions (answers to multiple Wh questions) in a natural way.