Clauses with global focus

74 a. -l ɔɔ klää mnɛ - kʋ -mɔɔ Ɛɛ - wʋ ghlü there forest: OBL animal BE 1 LOC NH 2: XNEG CNT 2 be_big ‘There in the forest, there is an animal. It is not big. ɛmɛ wa la Nɛmʋ 7 NH 2: TH 3 P call Red_Deer It is called Red Deer lit. her they call Red Deer. ɛmɛɛ- - mʋ lä -a Bä yëku NH 2: TH : REL go: CP LOP 1 P Father beside She was the one who went to our Father …’ [creation 27–30] b. ɔ lä naa kazɔɔ ʋmʋ n budo mʋ 3 S say 1 S : GEN raffia_washcloth: DEF NH 3: TH 1 S wash: ICP OBL ‘He said, “My raffia washcloth, thats what I wash with …”’ [kazo 35] c. -n kä gää [sese] […] ŋnɔɔ mɔ wa kä lä you XCND beget NUPT female: DEF 3 S : TH 3 P XPOT LOP ‘If you have children, […] it is the girl that they will wlie nyɛ ɩyä -n gä lä ŋwadio kʋ bhlü husband: DEF give ADD 2 2 S XPOT LOP male VPC take marry off lit. give a husband and you will keep lit. take the boy.’ [siamoi 6, 11–12] If the pronoun is the subject of the clause, as in the last clause of 74a above, the low tone relative pronoun that is added to it is often reduced to a floating low tone cf. example 73 above. The initial vowel of the thematic pronoun tends to be dropped when the left-dislocated noun phrase ends in the same vowel as that of the pronoun, as is the case in 74c, where the pronoun ɔmɔ is reduced to mɔ following ŋnɔɔ ‘the female’. Unlike the first clause type with non-established information in focus, the type with established information in focus conveys contrastive meaning. It is also the structure used in the first clause of a sequence of two clauses expressing a double contrast, as in 74c, where the two constituents ‘girl’ and ‘marry off’ in the first clause are in contrast to ‘boy’ and ‘keep’ in the second clause. Note that the latter clause has the pragmatic structure of predicate focus.

4.1.3 Clauses with global focus

Clauses with global focus express only non-established information. They typically introduce a new entity into the discourse, affirming or negating its existence, but without saying anything further about it. The new entity can be a participant that is brought on stage or a whole event in which all entities are new. Four subtypes of global focus structures can be distinguished in Godié on the basis of their linguistic form: 1 a nominal clause; 2 the verb -k ʋ ‘BE1’ followed by a dummy locative complement; 3 an imperative clause with ni ‘find’; and 4 an event-reporting clause. introduced contrastively. However, it does make sense to say that referent X and not a different referent is called Y. 7 N ɛmʋ is the vernacular name for a small species of mazama deer, probably mazama rufina. Type 1: Nominal clause The first type of global focus structure is expressed by a nominal clause. It consists of a noun phrase and a predicator element that allows the nominal phrase to function as a nominal predicate see §3.1.1. The predicator element can be realized either by the low prominence particle lä ‘LOP’, as in example 75a, or by the past tense particles bh ɛ ‘PST4’, as in 75b, or wä ‘PST3, as in 75c. Note in 75c that the past particle wä may amalgamate with the low prominence particle lä, yielding the form wlä. In the same example, w ɛ seems to be a variant form of wä in negative clauses see §2.5.2. 75 a. kpläkplödö lä lie:news LOP ‘It’s a lie …’ [lueuzi 6] b. ɔ nagɔ bhɛ 3 S friend PST 4 ‘He was her friend …’ [devinet 30] c. - dʋdʋʋ wɛ - kʋ -mä jie -bhlobhlo wlä earth: XNEG PST 3 BE 1 ADD 4 ocean one_ only PST 3: LOP ‘… there was no firm ground, but only the ocean existed.’ [creation 18–19] In order to affirm the non-existence of a referent, a negative verbal clause with the intransitive verb -k ʋ ‘BE1’ is used, as shown in the first clause of 75c and in example 76. 8 76 tëbhii wɛ - kʋ towel: PL : XNEG PST 3 BE 1: CP ‘Towels didn’t exist back then.’ [kazo 21] Type 2: -k ʋ BE1’ and dummy locative complement The second type of global focus structures contains the intransitive verb -k ʋ BE1’ and the locative adverb -l ɔɔ ‘there’ acting as a dummy locative complement, as in 77a and 77b. 77 a. nyibhlë - kʋ - lɔɔ river BE 1: CP there ‘There was a river.’ [kazo 6] b. nyɩkpaa - wʋ - lɔɔ nyie yëku - kʋ people: DEF : XNEG CNT 2 there lagoon beside BE 1: CP ‘… the usual people were not around on the shore of the lagoon, -mä bhlooblo lʋä - kʋ - lɔɔ ADD 4 a_few IPF : PL BE 1: CP there though a few were around.’ [greve 64–65] 8 Other Kru languages use a negative predicator particle to affirm the non-existence of a referent, such as the particle ko- in Wobé see Egner 1989:150. Type 3: Imperative clause with ni ‘find’ The third subtype of global focus structures is a set imperative clause with the verb ni ‘find’. In conversation it is used to present someone or something to someone, as in example 78. If the person or object is presented to one person, second singular pronouns are used, as in 78a; if the person or object is presented to more than one person, second plural pronouns areused, as in 78b. 78 a. -n ni -naa dä 2 S find 2 S : GEN share ‘Here is your sg. share’ [fabricated example] b. a ni any ɩn dä 2 P find 2 P : TH : GEN share ‘Here is your pl share’ [fabricated example] Type 4: Event-reporting clause The fourth type of global focus structures is the so-called event-reporting clause see Lambrecht 1994:137ff.. In Godié such a clause is syntactically constructed in subject-predicate form but at the pragmatic level, it is a global focus structure. This type of clause—which answers the question “What happened?”—is a structure with a non-topical subject. Typically, it occurs with certain verbs of movement such as come and go and takes incompletive aspect. It is used to bring participants on stage, as is the case in example 79. See also §5.1.1. 79 zɩkää ylʋʋ kʋ nä ŋwadi mʋ ylä today: GEN day: DEF on SP 1 lad go: ICP now: LOP ‘Now one day lit. on the day of today a lad was coming along …’ [kazo 15–17]

4.2 Points of departure