Presentational sentence focus Event reporting sentence focus

6 Information structure A speaker or writer can convey the same information in different ways, depending on his assumptions about what his audience already knowns. The topic of a sentence is what the utterance is about; it must be either established or at least accessible. The focus of an utterance changes the audience’s mental representation about the topic, and contains the asserted information. 42 In addition, standard categorizing of sentence articulations fall into three main types depending on the domain of the focus within the utterance. In sentence focus utterances the whole sentence is discourse-new, asserted information; that is, the domain of the focus is the whole utterance. In predicate focus sentences the topic is presupposed but the comment—including the verb—is the domain of the focus. In argument focus sentences, only one argument of the utterance, whether the subject, object or adjunct, is the domain of the focus with the rest of the utterance, including the verb, being presupposed information. 43 Note that these categories also apply equally to clauses. For simplicity, however, the term ‘sentence articulation’ is used in this section for both.

6.1 Sentence focus presentational; thetic

The domain of the focus in a thetic sentence is the whole sentence, and at least the subject and the verb must be non-established information. There are two types of sentences with sentence focus: presentational and event reporting, the latter of which includes experiential sentences. Despite the different functions of these sentences, in Makonde they all have one element in common: they all show marked word order, usually including a postposed subject.

6.1.1 Presentational sentence focus

Presentational sentences occur in nearly every text. This is where a new entity is introduced into the text. In Makonde these can be elaborately formulaic in structure, as seen in examples in the 04 Participant reference section 4.1.1, or they may be as simple as the V S example illustrated below. 05 Fisherman presentational sentence focus introducing new entity into narrative, with postposed subject 1a. Andípagwa munu S He.was person, Once upon a time there was a man…

6.1.2 Event reporting sentence focus

Event reporting occurs where a completely new event—as opposed to a new entity—is introduced into a text without being linked to an established topic, or without being presupposed; however, this is rare in Makonde. In the example below from 09 Ákalimanya, the new event is ugombi ‘conflict’ which is introduced suddenly into the narrative. 42 See Floor, S.J. 20042, section 1.3 Topic and Focus. 43 See Nicolle, S. 2011, section 6.1. 09 Ákalimanya event reporting sentence focus introducing new event into narrative, with postposed subject 32a. [AFTER VERB] Kwinjila ugombi S Entered conflict So there was a real conflict… More commonly, a sentence which has a discourse-new subject and verb is introduced into the narrative in Makonde by means of a topic frame. In the example from 07 Mother and child below, the subject of the sentence, vajungu ‘the Portuguese’ an entity, and the verb vatenda ingondo, their ‘making war’, an event are introduced for the first time into the narrative, but the whole sentence is connected into the discourse by the topic frame ingondo ailá ‘that war’, which reiterates the topic of ‘war’ introduced in the sentence before. This then becomes a predicate focus sentence and the subject is not postposed. 07 Mother and child introduction of subject and verb into narrative by means of a topic frame 3a. Ingondo ailá vajungu vashindauma po pa Mweda apa War that white.people they.were.leaving here at Mueda here 3b. kupita passed 3c. vatenda ingondo they.making war During that war, the Portuguese would make sorties from right here in Mueda, going out to fight... 6.1.2.1 Experiential sentence focus These are a special type of event-reporting sentences, where the topic of the sentence ‘experiences’ rather than ‘does’ the verb. In the example below from 08 Archbishop, dyoni ‘shame’ ‘comes to’ those who had been going to lay out cloths on the ground for the Archbishop to walk on. As in other sentence-focus constructions, the grammatical subject of the sentence is postposed. This could also be analyzed as a presentation sentence-focus, where the abstract concept ‘shame’ is introduced. However, the heavy participant marking vo vene vapaganiénge on the original participants is a signal that, despite their move to being the object of the verb, they are being explicitly maintained as prominent. For this reason the designation experiential sentence focus seems more appropriate here. 08 Archbishop experiential sentence focus where topic experiences the verb; postposed subject 10a. Mwiu shinu ashilá hashuukíle ndatandeka True thing that was.not.going and.be.done 10b. kutwala vo vene vapanga - niénge O [AFTER VERB] kuvaida dyoni S kavili. then those same who.had.prepared it.came.to.them shame again. The cloths were not in fact laid out, and instead the women who had been getting ready to do so were deeply embarrassed. In the example from 09 Ákalimanya below, the protagonist is at a loss what to do, but dindímwida dingano ‘came to him thoughts’: 09 Ákalimanya experiential sentence focus where topic experiences the verb; postposed subject 7c. nae, --- hashipali shagwene he --- there.was.not of.he.should see 7d. [AFTER VERB] dindímwida dingano S they.came.to.him thoughts …he could not think what to do; then he got the idea of… Also from 09 Ákalimanya, in the following example the protagonist Ákalimanya is not referred to explicitly, but there is a reference to him in mushu mwake mo ‘in his future’ and also as an object infix in the verb, vilwele S vininkodya ‘illnesses met him’. He is the topic of the sentence, and experiences what happens; namely, that illnesses come. 09 Ákalimanya experiential sentence focus where implicit topic experiences the verb; postposed subject 40a. Kanji shinu ashi shindyaneka do But thing this was.seen thus, 40b. mushu mwake mo [AFTER VERB] vininkodya vilwele vikumene namene S. future his that they.met.him illnesses great very. But as it turned out, later on he had a problem with serious illness.

6.2 Predicate focus topic-comment