TY  - JOUR
A1  - De Veaugh-Geiss, Joseph P.
T1  - nà-cleft (non-)exhaustivity
BT  - variability in Akan
JF  - Glossa : a journal of general linguistics
N2  - This paper presents two experimental studies on the exhaustive inference associated with focus-background na-clefts in Akan (among others, Boadi 1974; Duah 2015; Grubic & Renans & Duah 2019; Titov 2019), with a direct comparison to two recent experiments on German es-clefts employing an identical design (De Veaugh-Geiss et al. 2018). Despite the unforeseen response patterns in Akan in the incremental information-retrieval paradigm used, a post-hoc exploratory analysis reveals compelling parallels between the two languages. The results are compatible with a unified approach both (i) cross-linguistically between Akan and German; and (ii) cross-sententially between na-clefts (a na P, 'It is a who did P') and definite pseudoclefts, i.e., definite descriptions with identity statements (Nipa no a P ne a, 'The person who did P is a') (Boadi 1974; Ofori 2011). Participant variability in (non-)exhaustive interpretations is compatible with discourse pragmatic approaches to cleft exhaustivity (Pollard & Yasavul 2016; De Veaugh-Geiss et al. 2018; Titov 2019).
KW  - Akan
KW  - nà-clefts
KW  - definite pseudoclefts
KW  - exhaustivity
KW  - experimental studies
Y1  - 2021
U6  - https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.5698
SN  - 2397-1835
VL  - 6
IS  - 1
PB  - Open Library of Humanities
CY  - London
ER  -