@incollection{HartmannZimmermann2006, author = {Hartmann, Katharina and Zimmermann, Malte}, title = {Morphological focus marking in G{\`u}r{\`u}nt{\`u}m (West Chadic)}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19525}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2006}, abstract = {The paper presents an in-depth study of focus marking in G{\`u}r{\`u}nt{\`u}m, a West Chadic language spoken in Bauchi Province of Northern Nigeria. Focus in G{\`u}r{\`u}nt{\`u}m is marked morphologically by means of a focus marker a, which typically precedes the focus constituent. Even though the morphological focus-marking system of G{\`u}r{\`u}nt{\`u}m allows for a lot of fine-grained distinctions in information structure (IS) in principle, the language is not entirely free of focus ambiguities that arise as the result of conflicting IS- and syntactic requirements that govern the placement of focus markers. We show that morphological focus marking with a applies across different types of focus, such as newinformation, contrastive, selective and corrective focus, and that a does not have a second function as a perfectivity marker, as is assumed in the literature. In contrast, we show at the end of the paper that a can also function as a foregrounding device at the level of discourse structure.}, language = {en} } @article{Zimmermann2007, author = {Zimmermann, Malte}, title = {Contrastive focus}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19688}, year = {2007}, abstract = {The article puts forward a discourse-pragmatic approach to the notoriously evasive phenomena of contrastivity and emphasis. It is argued that occurrences of focus that are treated in terms of 'contrastive focus', 'kontrast' (Vallduv{\´i} \& Vilkuna 1998) or 'identificational focus' ({\´E}. Kiss 1998) in the literature should not be analyzed in familiar semantic terms like introduction of alternatives or exhaustivity. Rather, an adequate analysis must take into account discourse-pragmatic notions like hearer expectation or discourse expectability of the focused content in a given discourse situation. The less expected a given content is judged to be for the hearer, relative to the Common Ground, the more likely a speaker is to mark this content by means of special grammatical devices, giving rise to emphasis.}, language = {en} } @article{HartmannJacobZimmermann2008, author = {Hartmann, Katharina and Jacob, Peggy and Zimmermann, Malte}, title = {Focus asymmetries in Bura}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19381}, year = {2008}, abstract = {(Chadic), which exhibits a number of asymmetries: Grammatical focus marking is obligatory only with focused subjects, where focus is marked by the particle {\´a}n following the subject. Focused subjects remain in situ and the complement of {\´a}n is a regular VP. With nonsubject foci, {\´a}n appears in a cleft-structure between the fronted focus constituent and a relative clause. We present a semantically unified analysis of focus marking in Bura that treats the particle as a focusmarking copula in T that takes a property-denoting expression (the background) and an individual-denoting expression (the focus) as arguments. The article also investigates the realization of predicate and polarity focus, which are almost never marked. The upshot of the discussion is that Bura shares many characteristic traits of focus marking with other Chadic languages, but it crucially differs in exhibiting a structural difference in the marking of focus on subjects and non-subject constituents.}, language = {en} } @article{BlaszczakDipperFanselowetal.2007, author = {Blaszczak, Joanna and Dipper, Stefanie and Fanselow, Gisbert and Ishihara, Shinishiro and Petrova, Svetlana and Skopeteas, Stavros and Weskott, Thomas and Zimmermann, Malte}, title = {Syntax}, series = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS}, journal = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS}, number = {7}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1614-4708}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-22253}, pages = {95 -- 133}, year = {2007}, abstract = {The guidelines for syntactic annotation contain the layers that are especially relevant for queries related to the interaction of information structure with syntax. The layers of this level are constituent structure, grammatical functions, and semantic roles.}, language = {en} } @article{BlaszczakDipperFanselowetal.2007, author = {Blaszczak, Joanna and Dipper, Stefanie and Fanselow, Gisbert and Ishihara, Shinishiro and Petrova, Svetlana and Skopeteas, Stavros and Weskott, Thomas and Zimmermann, Malte}, title = {Morphology}, series = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS}, journal = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS}, number = {7}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1614-4708}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-22247}, pages = {55 -- 94}, year = {2007}, abstract = {The guidelines for morphological annotation contain the layers that are necessary for understanding the structure of the words in the object language: morphological segmentation, glossing, and annotation of part-of-speech.}, language = {en} }