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Article published In:
Studies in Language
Vol. 44:3 (2020) ► pp.501–547

Topicality in Sentence Focus utterances

ORCID logo | NRU Higher School of Economics

Focus and newness are distinct features. The fact that subconstituents of focus can be given or discourse-old has been pointed out in Selkirk (1984) and Lambrecht (1994). Nevertheless, when it comes to Sentence Focus, it is still common to equate Focus with newness, and to treat SF sentences as necessarily all-new. One of the reasons for such bias is that formally or typologically oriented descriptions of SF tend to analyze only intransitive ‘out of the blue’ SF utterances stemming from elicitation. Based on SF utterances in natural speech in Kakabe, a Western Mande language, the present study shows that in natural speech SF utterances are associated with a rich array of discourse strategies. Accordingly, the discourse properties of the referents inside SF are subject to variation and affect the implementation of the focus-marking. The study also shows how the discourse properties of referents define the distribution of the focus marker in Kakabe.

Keywords: sentence focus, inferential, topicality, givenness, subject
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Discourse structure and focus
    • 2.1Question-based model of information structure
    • 2.2Question-Answer Congruence and focus phrase
    • 2.3Givenness and topicality in focus constituents
    • 2.4Two approaches to sentence focus
  • 3.Kakabe: General information
    • 3.1Verbal utterance
    • 3.2Inflectional paradigm
    • 3.3Data and methodology
  • 4.Argument and predicate focus
    • 4.1 In situ focus phrase
    • 4.2Types of focus meanings
    • 4.3Discourse status of referents within the focus phrase
  • 5.Use of SF in discourse
    • 5.1Types of discourse uses of SF constructions
    • 5.2Inferentials as a type of SF use
    • 5.3Inferential SF in Kakabe
    • 5.4Non-explicative inferentials
  • 6.Position of lè in SF and the referential properties
    • 6.1Nominal DPs in the focused constituent
    • 6.2Locutors in the focused constituent
    • 6.3Focus constituent with pronominal non-locutors
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 27 July 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.18069.vyd
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