34 speaker is informing the listener that the work has been done, but not in answer to a
question in which ‘I’ is the focus and the doing of the work is already presupposed.
2.3.1.5 Left dislocation to give prominence to a focal constituent
The principle of natural information flow and the preference for immediately pre- verbal placement of constituents in narrow focus accounts for many of the variations of
constituent order. However, it is important to note that VanValin and LaPolla’s comments in the previous section referred to unmarked focus position. He also allows
for marked narrow focus, “that falling on an element in a position in the clause other than the unmarked focus position” 1997:209. Levinsohn also indicates that there are often
two options for the placement of focal constituents: “The option exists in many languages for focal constituents to be placed either late in the sentence or preposed
following the point of departure, if present” 2008:52. In Hani, focal constituents can be given particular prominence by the creation of a
left-dislocated constituent which identifies the referent. This referent is then represented by a pronoun and placed in the pre-verbal position of the main clause. An example of this
strategy was presented in example 21b, above. This also occurs in sentence 26, where two people are arguing over who will receive some items, and the arbitrator suggests a
method for choosing the winner: 26
Naolhao hhuvq lal
e yul
hhaq, miaoqgaoq
last return
come.up LNK
that HCL thing
dyul
aqyoq a bivq...
DPL 3
DAT give
‘That person who returns last, [I will] give the things to him...’
II:32
35 The left-dislocated, relative clause ‘that person who returns last’ identifies the referent
which is to be brought into narrow focus and given prominence. In the main clause, a resumptive pronoun is used in the immediately pre-verbal position.
Sentence 27 is similar. It comes from a story in which three people have shot a hen. One of them proposes a plan to determine which one of them will eat the hen they
have shot: 27
Ngaldu saol hhaq doqteil
maq duv nei
aqsol
1pi three
HCL sound
NEG out
ABL who
jol nia
zeiq ngaoq, haniq xil ssaq aqsol yaol bi
be able
CMPR TOP
hen this
CL who
ACC cause
zaq. eat
‘Whoever of the three of us is most able to sit here quietly, [we will] allow him to eat this hen.’
IV:1 The left-dislocated relative clause ‘whoever of the three of us is most able to sit here
quietly’ identifies the referent who is to be brought into narrow focus and given prominence. The resumptive pronoun is placed in the pre-verbal position of the main
clause. The above construction involving left-dislocation represents the only situation in
Hani that I know of where non-established information the information in the left- dislocated clause precedes established information the ‘things’ in 26 and the ‘hen’ in
27.
36
2.3.1.6 Using an equative construction to give prominence to a focal constituent
