Schwarz, Anne

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 Predication Focus and  “Affirmative” Markers in Gur Anne Schwarz, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, SFB 632 1  Previous Analyses The ME-particle:  -  is placed clause-finally and most frequently occurs in direct postverbal position whereby [enclitic, A.S.] pronominal objects may intervene. Other complements separating verb and clause-final particle are less common, but possible. -  is nearly totally excluded from negative sentences. It needs special contexts to occur here. -  seems to be restricted to the indicative mood. -  shows some affinity to the imperfective aspect. It is (almost) obligatory in imperfective intransitive sentences,  although it is compatible with the perfec-tive aspect, too. -  conveys some emphatic and “insisting” communicational value, at least in part of its occurrences.  Hypothesis: The ME-particles have a basic pragmatic status and function as verb-and-predication focus marker in all four languages.  2  Elicitation Method Use of a special questionnaire (“kama-Test”):     Precondition: Mother gives some orders to her child before leaving for shopping. After each order the child confirms the fulfilment in advance.      A: Wash the clothes!   B: Okay / I will (wash them). ... ... A: Don’t take my medicine!  B: Okay / I won’t (take it).  3  Focus System 1. Determination of morphological means according to scope in the (affirmative) focus system Scope of focus 1. complement   / VP  2. subject / sentence     (topicless) 3. non-subject       (marked topic) 4. verb /   predication  Structure  SVXO SVX(O)    Konni SXV(O)    others OS(X)V  Konni OXSV     others SV(O)X  SVX Buli  ká le tè  ka-ma  -y(a) Konni  -wÁ, -Á1  -nÀ (di)2  m  -yÁ Dagbani  lá N  kà  m  -ya Gurene  la N  ti  m  -ya   canonical transitive sentence    canonical intransitive sentence       imperfective affinity perfective                                             1   aspectually differenciated: -wÁ in the perfective, -Á in the imperfective 2   only after lexical subject 3  Conference on Focus in African Languages (FiAL), 6-8 October 2005, Berlin  4  Focus Marking by “Affirmative” Markers Focus as pragmatic and not necessarily marked notion:  “The focal information in a linguistic expression is that information which is relatively the most important or salient in the given communicative setting, and considered by S[peaker, A.S.] to be most essential for A[ddressee, A.S.] to integrate into his pragmatic information”                        (Dik 1997: 326)  Assertive and contrastive focus subtypes applying to:  -  term focus -  verb focus: verb’s lexical meaning  -  predication focus: predicative operators (verum / auxiliary focus)      (Hyman & Watters 1984; Güldemann 1996; Wolff 2003)  Pragmatic Focus Control:  the speaker determines the element(s) on which  the grammar will express focus  Grammatical Focus Control:  the grammar determines how  the speaker will express focus (Hyman & Watters 1984, Wolff 2003) Anne Schwarz: Predication Focus and “Affirmative Markers” in Gur  4 4.1  Verb Focus 2.   Situation  XII:  Mother’s orders were not properly fulfilled by her child. When mother comes back and asks, the child informs her about the correct action which doesn’t match with mother’s expectation.     A: Have you washed the clothes? B: No, I have patched them.     aaya,   m    la-a             kama.  Buli no         1sg    patch:PF-3pl      AFF      aay,     n      baal-!ha         m.  Konni no          1sg     sew:PF-3pl        AFF     ehe,      n      la-!l            m.       Dagbani   no          1sg   patch:PF-3(sg)    AFF    aay,     n     l-ba              !m. Gurene no          1sg   patch:PF-3pl       AFF      Result: highly appropriate use of ME-particle in contrastive contexts in affirma-tion, even in the perfective aspect   4.2  Predication Focus  3.    Situation I: Mother comes back after some time and wants to know whether her orders have been fulfilled. Her positive expectation is confirmed by child.     A: Have you washed the clothes?  B: Yes, I have washed them. 5  Conference on Focus in African Languages (FiAL), 6-8 October 2005, Berlin    mm,    n       sur              kama / -y(a). Buli yes         1sg      wash:PF            AFF    / -ITR       wa,       n       sur-!ye       *(m). Konni yes         1sg     wash:PF-ITR      AFF     ee,         m     paa-ya.          / #m      Dagbani   yes          1sg    wash:PF-ITR    ,         m      pee-ya.           / *m Gurene yes          1sg     wash:PF-ITR             Result: language-specific  restrictions towards use of ME-particle in assertive predication focus in affirmative perfective   4.   Situation VIII: (...) Child’s bad aunt shouts at the child that he should follow his mother’s orders. The child communicates that there is no need for such command, since the required action has already been done.     A: Do what your mother told you!   B: I have (already) washed (the clothes)!    m   sur      attaa     kama.  Buli 1sg   wash:PF  cloth.DEF   AFF      n     w     sur     ntt        m. Konni 1sg  already  wash:PF   things.DEF  AFF     m    pum      pa          m. Dagbani 1sg   already   wash:PF      AFF      m    pee         futu   la.     /   m    pee-ya. Gurene 1sg   wash:PF   cloth   DEF   /   1sg   wash:PF-ITR     Anne Schwarz: Predication Focus and “Affirmative Markers” in Gur  6  Result: language-specific restrictions towards use of ME-particle in contrastive predication focus in affirmative perfective   5.   Situation XVII: When mother realizes that child hasn't fulfilled the orders, she becomes angry and tells her child, what he would have got, if only he had done what she ordered.      A: If you had not taken my medicine, you would have got money.    f    dan  kan    u     m   tmu              kama, ... Buli 2sg   if     NEG   drink  1sg   medicine.DEF   AFF              f      t       ka      u          n      tb              m, ...  Konni 2sg:H  PAST  NEG   drink:PF  1sg    medicine.DEF   AFF      a-n        d       b     val            n   tm        maa  m, ... Dagbani 2sg-SUB PAST  NEG  swallow:PF 1sg  medicine DEF  AFF      or:  a    y   d       b     kp-l        m, ... 2sg  if    PAST  NEG  take:PF-3sg    AFF      h  san !ka     u        n         n     tem      la      m, ... Gurene 2sg  if     NEG  drink:PF PAST?  1sg   medicine DEF  AFF   Result: appropriate use of ME-particle even with negative perfective predicates in counterfactual conditional clauses    7  Conference on Focus in African Languages (FiAL), 6-8 October 2005, Berlin 4.3  Comparative Results 6a. Affirmative perfective, SV(O)X  type / scope  verb focus  predication focus assertive  Konni (Buli)  Konni, Buli (Dagbani) contrastive  Konni, Buli, Dagbani (Gurene)  Konni, Buli, Dagbani (Gurene) 6b. Affirmative imperfective, SV(O)X  type / scope  verb focus  predication focus assertive  Konni, Buli, Dagbani, Gurene  Konni, Buli, Dagbani, Gurene contrastive  Konni, Buli, Dagbani, Gurene  Konni, Buli, Dagbani, Gurene  -  highest degree of pragmatic control for the ME-particles in all sample languages: contrastive focus in the affirmative perfective -  especially in Konni and Gurene, ME-particles are subject to restrictions diminuishing the pragmatical control -  greater choice for use of ME-particles in Buli and Dagbani   7.  Degree and parameters of grammatical control for marked verb/predication focus         [focus marking]  [aspectual marking]BuliKonni Dagbani Gurene grammatical control pragmatic control verb / predication focus Anne Schwarz: Predication Focus and “Affirmative Markers” in Gur  8 Evidence: Results  of  kama-test corroborate the initially postulated pragmatic function of the ME-particles as verb-and-predication focus markers -  why is it that – apart from Konni and to certain degree also apart from Buli – the particles are almost completely blocked from assertive verb focus occurrences in the perfective?  -  Solution: existence of a competing clause-final verb suffix –ya with basic pragmatic function   8. Former pragmatic counterparts type / scope  verb / predication focus assertive  -YA contrastive  ME  9. Konni   verb / predication focus   assertive  ME  -YA as perfective aspectual markercontrastive  ME     10. Gurene (verb / predication focus) aspect (assertive/contrastive) perfective  -YA (contrastive) imperfective ME   5  Conclusion -  complex and heavily marked focus systems exist in Gur languages of the Oti-Volta branch 9  Conference on Focus in African Languages (FiAL), 6-8 October 2005, Berlin -  “affirmative” markers (ME-particles and -YA-suffixes) mark verb/pre-dication focus and their function is comparable with “in-focus” verb forms in Chadic languages and “disjoint” verb forms in Bantu -  complementary marked “verb” focus constructions: (i) secondary focus on verb via marked complement in complex VP, (ii) exclusive verb focus and predication focus by ME- and -YA-particles  -  focus interacts with grammatical categories, including the aspect system, absorption by aspect is possible -  parallels between contrastive verb/predication focus marker (ME) and postnominal morphemes used with a subgroup of contrastive topics -  future necessity to integrate negative markers and constructions into investigation -  further research in Gur will reveal other morphemes marking verb/predication focus and probably other strategies to express this focus category Reference Cahill, Mike. 1999. Aspects of the morphology and phonology of Knni, Ohio State University: Ph.D. dissertation. Dakubu, M. E. Kropp. 1996. A grammar of Gurune (Corrected trial edition). Legon: Language Centre, University of Ghana. --  2000. The particle la in Gurene. Gur Papers / Cahiers Voltaïques 5:59-65. Dakubu, M.E. Kropp, and Saanchi, Angkaaraba. 1997. Broad and narrow focus in Dagaare. Ms. Dik, Simon. 1997. The theory of functional grammar I. The structure of the clause. (Functional Grammar Series; 20). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Fiedler, Ines & Anne Schwarz. (to appear). Out-of-focus encoding in Gur and Kwa. In: Ishihara, Shinichiro, Michaela Schmitz and Anne Schwarz (eds.): Interdisciplinary Studies on Information Structure 4.  Potsdam: Potsdam University.  Anne Schwarz: Predication Focus and “Affirmative Markers” in Gur  10 Güldemann, Tom. 1996. Verbalmorphologie und Nebenprädikationen im Bantu. Eine Studie zur funktional motivierten Genese eines konjugationalen Subsystem: Bochumer-Essener Beiträge zur Sprachwandelforschung, Bd. 27. Bochum: Brockmeyer. Kröger, Franz. 1992. Buli - English dictionary. With an introductory grammar and an index English - Buli: Forschungen zu Sprachen und Kulturen Afrikas; 1. Münster, Hamburg: Lit Verlag. Manessy, Gabriel. 1963. Les particules affirmatives postverbales dans le groupe voltaïque. BIFAN 25 (B):106-124. Olawsky, Knut J. 1999. Aspects of Dagbani grammar. With special emphasis on phonology and morphology: LINCOM studies in African linguistics; 41. München, Newcastle: Lincom. Richards, Norvin. 2003. Some notes on temporal and conditional adjuncts in Buli. In: Kenstowicz, Michael and George Akanlig-Pare (eds.): Studies in Buli Grammar: Working Papers on Endangered and Less Familiar Languages 4:147-157. Schwarz, Anne. 2004. Aspekte der Morphosyntax und Tonologie im Buli. Mit Schwerpunkt auf dem Buli von Wiaga. Dissertation, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. --  (in preparation). Topic/focus-intersection in discourse: copulative and narrative patterns in Gur.  Wilson, William André A. 1972. Dagbani: an introductory course. (Part II). Tamale: Institute of Linguistics. Wolff, H. Ekkehard. 2003. Predication focus in Chadic languages. In Topics in Chadic linguistics, ed. H. Ekkehard Wolff, 137-159. Köln: Köppe. Anne Schwarz Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin SFB 632 “Information Structure” Project B1 and D2 Location: Mohrenstr.  40-41 Unter den Linden 6 D-10099 Berlin  Germany anne.schwarz@rz.hu-berlin.de www.sfb632.uni-potsdam.de 

A grammar of Gurune (Corrected trial edition). Legon: Language Centre,

appear). Out-of-focus encoding in Gur and Kwa.

Aspects of Dagbani grammar. With special emphasis on phonology and morphology:

Aspects of the morphology and phonology of Knni,

Aspekte der Morphosyntax und Tonologie im Buli. Mit Schwerpunkt auf dem Buli von Wiaga. Dissertation, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. -- (in preparation). Topic/focus-intersection in discourse: copulative and narrative patterns in Gur.

Predication focus and "affirmative" markers in Gur

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