Article published in:
Corpus-based Studies of Lesser-described Languages: The CorpAfroAs corpus of spoken AfroAsiatic languagesEdited by Amina Mettouchi, Martine Vanhove and Dominique Caubet
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 68] 2015
► pp. 63–115
The intonation of topic and focus
Zaar (Nigeria), Tamasheq (Niger), Juba Arabic (South Sudan) and Tripoli Arabic (Libya)
Bernard Caron | LLACAN (UMR 8135), Inalco, CNRS, PRES Sorbonne Paris-Cité
Cécile Lux | DDL-Lacito
Stefano Manfredi | SeDyL (UMR 8202), Inalco, CNRS
Christophe Pereira | LACNAD, INALCO
A follow-up of the CorpAfroAs project, this paper presents a typologically-oriented study of the intonation of Topic and Focus in four Afroasiatic languages (Zaar, Tamasheq, Juba Arabic and Tripoli Arabic), in relation to their phonological and information structures. The different prosodic systems represented in the study — i.e. the demarcative accent system of Berber, the lexical stress system of Tripoli Arabic; the pitch accent system of Juba Arabic; and the tone system of Zaar — give ground to the study of the correlation between these prosodic systems and their intonation structures; and more particularly, how declination, wich seems to be a universal of the intonation of declarative sentences, interacts with other sentence types, such as Yes/No-Questions, WH-Questions, Exclamations, etc. Likewise, the paper explores the correlation between the prosodic systems and the intonational exponents of Topic and Focus. The paper starts by setting up the concepts and typological frame used for the study. Then, it presents a case study of the four languages, examining their prosodic systems, and the prosodic exponents of topic and focus. Finally, the paper compares the four systems, drawing conclusions from a typoligical point of view. A general rule seems to emerge from the study: lack of a specific intonation pattern for a specific intonation structure is supplemented by morpho-syntactic marking. In other words, the more a structure relies on morpho-syntax, the less it relies on intonation.
Published online: 20 May 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.68.03car
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.68.03car
Cited by
Cited by 1 other publications
Caron, Bernard
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 03 april 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
References
References
Bearth, Thomas
Caron, Bernard
Caubet, Dominique
Cornish, Francis
Furukawa, Naoyo
Lambrecht, Knud
Lafkioui, Mena
Louali, Naïma & Philippson, Gérard
Lux, Cécile
Lux, Cécile & Philippson, Gérard
Manfredi, Stefano
Manfredi, Stefano & Petrollino, Sara
2013. Juba Arabic. In The Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Structures III: The Language Surveys, Susanne Michaelis, Philippe Maurer, Magnus Huber & Martin Haspelmath (eds) 54 65 Oxford OUP
Manfredi, Stefano & Tosco, Mauro
2014. The morphosyntax and prosody of topic and focus in Juba Arabic. In Arabic-based pidgins and creoles. Special issue of Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages (29:2): 319–351. Stefano Manfredi & Mauro Tosco (eds)
Mettouchi, Amina
Morel, Mary-Annick & Danon-Boileau, Laurent
Newman, Paul
Pereira, Christophe
Robert, Stephane
Vanhove, Martine
1996 Les particules qad et ra’ dans un dialecte arabe de Yafi’ (Yémen). In
Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference of l’Association Internationale pour la Dialectologie Arabe held at Trinity Hall in the University of Cambridge, 10-14 September 1995
. Cambridge: University of Cambridge.
Yeou, Mohamed, Embarki, Mohamed & Al-Maqtari, Sallal