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Title
Focus asymmetries in Bura |
Full text
http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2008/1938/ |
Date
2008 |
Author(s)
Hartmann, Katharina; Jacob, Peggy; Zimmermann, Malte |
Abstract
(Chadic), which exhibits a number of asymmetries: Grammatical focus marking is obligatory only with focused subjects, where focus is marked by the particle án following the subject. Focused subjects remain in situ and the complement of án is a regular VP. With nonsubject foci, án appears in a cleft-structure between the fronted focus constituent and a relative clause. We present a semantically unified analysis of focus marking in Bura that treats the particle as a focusmarking copula in T that takes a property-denoting expression (the background) and an individual-denoting expression (the focus) as arguments. The article also investigates the realization of predicate and polarity focus, which are almost never marked. The upshot of the discussion is that Bura shares many characteristic traits of focus marking with other Chadic languages, but it crucially differs in exhibiting a structural difference in the marking of focus on subjects and non-subject constituents. |
Subject(s)
Afro-Asiatic; focus asymmetries; argument/adjunct focus; predicate focus; polarity focus; cleft; focus copula; Language, Linguistics |
Language
eng |
Publisher
Universität Potsdam; Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät. Institut für Linguistik / Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft |
Type of publication
InBook |
Format
application/pdf |
Rights
http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/doku/urheberrecht.php |
Identifier
urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19381 |
Repository
Potsdam - University of Potsdam
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Added to C-A: 2008-12-22;03:58:01 |
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