Morphological focus and its agreement features in Kakabe

The paper explores the morphological expression of focus on the example of Focus Particle (FP) in Kakabe. The analysis addresses questions that are rarely if ever investigated with respect to morphological focus: i) how FP is related to the boundaries of a focus constituent, in particular, VP and IP...

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Main Author: Alexandra Vydrina
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Mandenkan, Langage, Langues et Cultures d’Afrique Noire 2023-05-01
Series:Mandenkan
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journals.openedition.org/mandenkan/3006
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author Alexandra Vydrina
author_facet Alexandra Vydrina
author_sort Alexandra Vydrina
collection DOAJ
description The paper explores the morphological expression of focus on the example of Focus Particle (FP) in Kakabe. The analysis addresses questions that are rarely if ever investigated with respect to morphological focus: i) how FP is related to the boundaries of a focus constituent, in particular, VP and IP focus; ii) how givenness affects the position of FP; iii) FP with respect to types of CP and CP boundaries. I demonstrate that, even though FP resembles prosodic focus in some respects, its distribution cannot be fitted into a prosodic account of focus, contra Büring 2010 and Féry 2013. More specifically, I propose that Kakabe has a Focus operator located lower than CP. Similarly to Cable’s (2006, 2010) Q-operator that can be involved a bi-partite agreement relationship, Foc operator agrees at a time with C0 above it and with the DP below it. I demonstrate how the pattern of FP distribution follows, in particular, from the conditions on Agree (Chomsky 2000, 2001), such as locality, superiority and activity conditions.
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spelling doaj.art-8ddd720c9a2247d6bee719d3bafffdb22023-06-07T12:19:33ZengMandenkan, Langage, Langues et Cultures d’Afrique NoireMandenkan2104-371X2023-05-0169308610.4000/mandenkan.3006Morphological focus and its agreement features in KakabeAlexandra VydrinaThe paper explores the morphological expression of focus on the example of Focus Particle (FP) in Kakabe. The analysis addresses questions that are rarely if ever investigated with respect to morphological focus: i) how FP is related to the boundaries of a focus constituent, in particular, VP and IP focus; ii) how givenness affects the position of FP; iii) FP with respect to types of CP and CP boundaries. I demonstrate that, even though FP resembles prosodic focus in some respects, its distribution cannot be fitted into a prosodic account of focus, contra Büring 2010 and Féry 2013. More specifically, I propose that Kakabe has a Focus operator located lower than CP. Similarly to Cable’s (2006, 2010) Q-operator that can be involved a bi-partite agreement relationship, Foc operator agrees at a time with C0 above it and with the DP below it. I demonstrate how the pattern of FP distribution follows, in particular, from the conditions on Agree (Chomsky 2000, 2001), such as locality, superiority and activity conditions.http://journals.openedition.org/mandenkan/3006Kakabe languagefocalizationmorphological focusfocus particlegivenness
spellingShingle Alexandra Vydrina
Morphological focus and its agreement features in Kakabe
Mandenkan
Kakabe language
focalization
morphological focus
focus particle
givenness
title Morphological focus and its agreement features in Kakabe
title_full Morphological focus and its agreement features in Kakabe
title_fullStr Morphological focus and its agreement features in Kakabe
title_full_unstemmed Morphological focus and its agreement features in Kakabe
title_short Morphological focus and its agreement features in Kakabe
title_sort morphological focus and its agreement features in kakabe
topic Kakabe language
focalization
morphological focus
focus particle
givenness
url http://journals.openedition.org/mandenkan/3006
work_keys_str_mv AT alexandravydrina morphologicalfocusanditsagreementfeaturesinkakabe