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Article In: Studies in Language: Online-First Articles

Contrastive topic marking in Xibe

 | Payap University
ORCiD logo with link | University of Oregon
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Abstract
Xibe (Sibe), a Tungusic language spoken by roughly 30,000 people in northwestern China, exhibits a specialized TOPIC+COMMENT construction involving the particle oqi. This paper investigates the origins and discourse-semantic functions of this construction. Drawing on a corpus of 3,531 sentences of oral narrative, we provide structural and functional evidence that oqi derives from the auxiliary o- plus the conditional suffix -qi. Synchronically, oqi functions as a specialized topic marker contrasting with the general topic marker da. Its distribution is conditioned by a cluster of discourse features, including contrast, concessive conditionality, affective stance, episodic transition, and H→L register transfer. Taken together, these properties indicate that oqi marks a pragmatically restricted type of topic. We argue that “contrastive topic” offers a useful working gloss, while noting that its range of uses reflects broader interactions among contrast, discourse organization, and speaker stance in Xibe.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Topic marking in Xibe
  • 3.Conditional clauses, and the constructionalization of o-qi
  • 4.Discourse motivations for the use of oqi as a topic marker
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (21)
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