Clauses with predicate focus

The topic of a clause is frequently expressed in the grammatical subject of the clause. However, the notions of topic and grammatical subject must remain distinct for “topics are not necessarily grammatical subjects, and grammatical subjects are not necessarily topics” ibid., 118. The information given about the topic referent is called the comment. However, in many cases, not all information in the comment is of equal importance to the speaker. Rather, the speaker will intend one part of that information—generally the new, or non-established, information—to be more salient. According to the principle of natural information flow see the introduction to this chapter, the expected place of this information within the clause will be towards the end of the comment, after the established information has been presented. As for the term focus, Lambrecht understands it as “the semantic component of a pragmatically structured proposition whereby the assertion differs from the presupposition” 1994:213. In other words, focus is what is left of a pragmatic proposition once the presupposed information is taken away. Put even more simply, focal information will typically be newly established information. In analogy to the distinction between topic and topic expression, Lambrecht distinguishes between focus as a semantico-pragmatic category and focus domain as the linguistic expression of the focal information. There are different types of focus structures, depending on which component of the semantic proposition is asserted and which thus carries the relatively most important that is, the focal or salient information. This leads to the distinction of three pragmatic clause types on the basis of their focus structure. 2 The first type of clausal information structure has predicate focus. It corresponds to what is commonly called a topic-comment structure. The second type has argument focus, meaning that the focal information is carried by an argument of the verb. 3 The third type does not have any presupposed information, which means that all information that is expressed is asserted and thus focal information. A clause expressing only asserted information may be said to have global focus. 4 It is important to note that focus cannot be conflated with new, or non-established, information, any more than presupposition can be with old information. According to Dooley and Levinsohn 2001:62, the focus of a clause is the information that the speaker intends as the most important … change to be made in the hearer’s mental representation.” Even though the focal domain of a structure often expresses non-established information while the presupposed material often refers to old information, one must distinguish the pragmatic function of the focus from its pragmatic properties. The function of the focus is to identify the most salient piece of information in the clause while the properties of the focus refer to its knowledge state established versus non-established, its degree of accessibility, or its activation state active, semi-active, non-active.

4.1.1 Clauses with predicate focus

Clauses with predicate focus—also known as topic-comment structures—answer questions such as “What did X do?” or “What happened to X?”. In Godié, X must be an established and active referent. Typically it is the grammatical subject of the clause. The default topic expression is the simple anaphoric pronoun. This is illustrated by example 69, where the referent, after having been activated in the first clause, is then referred to by the simple pronoun in the second clause. 2 Lambrechts three types of focus structure correlate with what Andrews 1985:77ff calls the three pragmatic articulations, namely presentational articulation, topic-comment articulation, and identificational articulation, or focus-presupposition. The articulation of information in a sentence is the way in which semantic content, that is, information, is presented in it. 3 For Lambrecht this includes information expressed by adjunct phrases. Indeed, if such phrases express focal information, they are promoted to argument status within the semantic proposition. See Egner 2005 for a description of this mechanism in Kru languages. 4 Lambrecht talks about sentence focus here. However, given that sentence is a grammatical unit beyond the clause, the term sentence focus will not be used here. 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