Information Structures in African Languages

This article presents a newly investigated field in linguistics : Information Structures. With a steady rise in the number of research bodies and universities working on Information Structures in various languages, this article was published as part of a research program in the African Department of a major university in Europe.

Focus in Bench
(Ines Fiedler: Notes from a discussion with Christian Rapold, 15.6.2011)
1. Term focus
1.1 subject focus
- uses the medial agreement paradigm
In Wetter&Samuels:
•   Medial verbs are one or more verbs, which precede the final verb, as in (1)    and normally refer to the same subj.:
(1a)   kŭr-ī       dònt-í       mát   ˵mɁ-í   kyā-k'-ù-ē (same subject)
donkey-NOM.m   get.up-m   grass   eat-m   become.satisfied.SC-FS-M- MEDᵈᵉᶜᶫ
'…the donkey got up, ate grass and was satisfied.'
(Rapold, 231: 29)
Wetter&Samuels:
•   switch reference suffixes:
form   -í   -á   -ñ
gloss   m   f   DS
function   same-subject.masc.   same-subject.fem.   different-subject
•   subject agreement in medial and indicative final verbs:
person   medial   Indicative final
1s   -á   -ù
2s   -á   -ù
3sm   -í   -ù
3sf   -á   -èn
3refl   -á   -
1+3   -á, -ó   -ù
1+2   -í   -ù
2p   -í   -ènd
3p   -í   -ènd

•   The medial verb agreement paradigm is also used in six environments where the element it marks is not a medial verb. One of them is The medial paradigm is used in subj. focus marking.
Consists of at least root-TAM marker-switch reference:
•   bound tense markers of core TAM system:
tense   Indic.final   medial   Polar ques.   Imper.   gloss   Stem
   -tel   +tel   -tel   +tel   -tel   +tel   -tel   +tel
Perfective
Perfect sg
Perfect pl
future   -Ø
-ńs, -ánk'

-ñs -Ø
-ńs, -ánk'

- -Ø
-ńs, -ánk'

-ń -Ø
-ńs, -ām
-án -ám
- -
PERF

FUT FS
FS

NFS
NFS = non factual stem. FS = factual stem +tel – telic verbs -tel – atelic

Rapold:
- Subject focus is expressed by a cleft-like construction (cf. for the discussion of this construction Rapold 2007)

- in perfective:
strong subject pronoun - to be āg - medial agreement OBJ final verb in indicative
nominal subject

(1)   tȁn‐āg‐á   gȍt‐ù.
   1S.STR‐be‐f   trade‐M
   It is me who bought (it). ~ I bought (it). (Rapold 2006: 238, ex. 44)
(1a)   tȁn‐āg‐á   muz   gȍt‐ù.
   1S.STR‐be‐f   banana   trade‐M
It is me who bought bananas. ~ I bought bananas. (Rapold, p.c. – check case marking on banana!)

- in imperfective (locative periphrase):
strong subject pronoun - to be āg -medial agreement OBJ medial verb (=main verb) be_LOC as final verb
nominal subject

(2)   tȁn‐āg‐á   gȍt‐á   yísk‐ù‐ē.
   1S.STR‐be‐f   trade‐f   be_located-M-MED
   It is me who is buying (it). ~ I am buying (it). (Rapold, p.c.).
In Wetter&Samuels:
(3)   tȁn-āg-á       gȍt-ù.
1s.str-be-f       trade-pl
'it is me who bought (it).', 'I bought (it).'   (Rapold, 239: 44)
1.2 non-subject focus
- all kinds of non-subject focus are expressed by suffixing marker -àn to the preceding element (object, adverbial phrase, verb, clause)
- no medial agreement paradigm used, Repold gives at least one example where paradigm is used (Wetter&Samuels):
(4)   móʃt-í-ān           yíst-ñs-ù-ē.
Swim-m- FOCˢᶸᴮ       be.located.NFS-FUT-m- MEDᵈᵉᶜᶫ
'he will be swimming [now].'/'maybe he is swimming.'
(Rapold, 233: 33)
- most often, this is done by marking the respective element in situ (seems to be used more often, Rapold, p.c., without statistical evidence)
- or by fronting the àn-marked element which is then followed by a short, simple subject pronoun
- in situ strategy is used for assertive and contrastive focus; whether there is a correlation between the two different syntactic strategies and the communicative point is not clear
- see examples (5 – temporal adverb), (8 - patiens) and (12 – subordinated clause) in Wetter & Samuels (2011):
(5)   yȉs-ī           cān-ám-á       mākcān-ám-á-ān                   3sm.STR.NOM.m   Monday-INSTR-COOR   Tuesday-INSTR-COOR- FOCˢᶸᴮ
k'ayts'-isk-ù-ē.
work-m.be.located.PRES-M-MEDᵈᵉᶜᶫ
'He works on Monday and Tuesday.'
(8)   B: ȁɁáȁ,   yí   kȕtʃ       ēs-árg-ù,       yí
No,   3sm   hand/arm   be.like-neg-m   3sm   head-
dȅb-ān   dèk-ñ-ènd       …dȅb-ḿ-ān….
FOCˢᶸᴮ       hitting-r.midd-pl   head-loc- FOCˢᶸᴮ
'No, not his arm, they hit his head.' (~…on his head.')
(Rapold, 492: 35,36)
(12)   gāb-ḿ       bā       hān-k'-ù   géʃ-ń-ān
Matket-LOC   refl.NOM   go-FS-M   back-LOC-FOCˢᶸᴮ
m︣uz    gȍt-ù.
Banana   trade-M.
'After having gone to the market, he bought bananas.' (Rapold, 227: 24)