Clauses with argument focus

69 ŋwadi mʋ ylä ɔ bhɛɛ ɔɔ kazɔɔ lad go: ICP now: LOP 3 S hold: ICP 3 S : GEN raffia_washcloth: DEF ‘… a lad was coming along, he was holding his raffia washcloth.’ [kazo 16–17] If a referent was not mentioned in the previous clause, it is considered as being no longer active. It must then be reactivated through a left-dislocated noun phrase see §3.3.1 before anything can be said about it. In example 70, even all of the previously established information about the referent is recapitulated before more information is given about it. 70 Kuŋnʋkla -a - kʋ ylä - mɔɔ nyibhlëa mʋ ghost_old_woman: DEF NH 1: REL BE 1: CP now: LOP LOC river: DEF OBL ‘The old woman’s ghost that was there in the river nɩ -a plöö- ylä - mɔɔ -zlëa nä ADD 1 NH 1: REL BE 2: CP now: LOP LOC : GEN spirit: DEF SP 1 and that was its spirit lit. the spirit of there, a yä kazɔɔ kʋ bhlü NH 1 XPER raffia_washcloth: DEF VPC take it has taken the raffia washcloth.’ [kazo 29–31] The same requirement holds for semi-active referents, that is, referents that can be established through inference, as in example 71. Here the referent for “village chief” can be inferred because the boatmen are villagers and hence have a village-chief. 71 waa ducifio titi ɔ lä ɔ kä nyie tɔɔ 3 P : GEN village:chief self 3 S say 3 S XPOT lagoon cross ‘Their village chief, he said he wanted to cross the lagoon’ [greve 50–51] It appears that the Godié language imposes a rather strong constraint on the speaker as to the choice of a clause topic. In terms of an instruction for topic choice the constraint can be formulated as follows: • Only choose an active referent as clause topic. It follows from this constraint that previously introduced referents that are no longer active must be reactivated before they can function as clause topic. This is achieved by means of a left-dislocated noun phrase. Thus the following additional instructional can be formulated: • In order to reactivate a referent that is no longer active, use a left-dislocated noun phrase.

4.1.2 Clauses with argument focus

In clauses with argument focus one of the nominal constituents expresses the most important information, that is, the information by which the speaker intends to make a change in the hearer’s mental representation. For Lambrecht 1994:122 these structures serve “to identify a referent as the missing argument in an open proposition.” Hence he uses the term identificational referent. 5 In Godié, the nominal constituent expressing the focal information is always preposed. Two types of clauses with argument focus can be distinguished: those in which non-established information is in focus and those in which established information is in focus. 5 Andrews 1985:79 talks about such structures as having focus-presupposition articulation. Type 1: Non- established information in focus In the first type, the information in focus is non-established information. Example 72 illustrates the preposing of different clause constituents: the direct object 72a, the locative complement 72b, the instrumental adjunct 72c, and the noun complement 72d. 72 a. nünü - ŋgbü n zɛɛ bhlä tale: PL five 1 S recount PST 1: LOP ‘… I was going to tell five tales.’ [creation 5] b. n kä Kumasii -bha nä 1 S XCND Kumasi: OBL leave: CP SP 1 ‘When I have left Kumasi, nɩ n kä yi nä MPutoo n ghlä lä ADD 1 1 S XCND come SP 1 MPuto: OBL 1 S pass LOP and when I come here, I pass through M’Puto.’ [greve 1–3] c. tɛɛtɛɛ -a bäsɩ -yä a tɩtɩä formerly 1 P father: PL ADD 2 1 P grandfather: PL ‘In former times, our fathers and grandfathers, kazɩɩ wa budo wä raffia_washcloth: PL : OBL 3P wash: ICP PST3 they used to wash themselves with raffia washcloths.’ [kazo 18–19] d. nyɩkpa sɔ a kä bhä -bhlü nä people two 2 P XCND PST 1 BE 4: CP SP 1 ‘… in case you were two people …’ [kazo 12–13] If the constituent in focus is the clause subject, it is followed by the low tone relative pronoun corresponding to the referents gender and number, as illustrated in example 73. The relative pronoun thus acts as a spacer between the syntactic constituent expressing the focal information and the rest of the clause expressing the presupposed information. The role of spacers is to separate information pertaining to different syntactic or pragmatic levels see §8.2. 73 Jübëyëkpü sɔɔ- - mʋ lä jie klʋʋ Neyo_people two: REL go: CP LOP ocean surface: OBL ‘… it was two Neyo that went out to fish in the ocean.’ [neyo 5.1] Type 2: Established information in focus In the second clause type with argument focus, the focal information is established information and expressed by a thematic pronoun see §2.2.1. It stands for an active referent see §4.1.1, which may have been mentioned in the preceding clause, as is the case with the focal information expressed by the thematic pronoun at the beginning of the third and fourth clauses of example 74a. Or the active referent may have been mentioned in an immediately preceding left-dislocated noun phrase, as in example 74b and 74c. 6 6 Example 74a incidentally illustrates the interplay of all three focus types in the introduction of a major participant. The first clause has global focus, the second has predicate focus, and the last two have argument focus, one with the object preposed and the other with the subject preposed. It seems unusual that the name of a referent is 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