@article{GueldemannZerbianZimmermann2015, author = {Gueldemann, Tom and Zerbian, Sabine and Zimmermann, Malte}, title = {Variation in information structure with special reference to Africa}, series = {Annual review of linguistics}, volume = {1}, journal = {Annual review of linguistics}, editor = {Liberman, M and Partee, BH}, publisher = {Annual Reviews}, address = {Palo Alto}, isbn = {978-0-8243-4201-2}, issn = {2333-9691}, doi = {10.1146/annurev-linguist-030514-125134}, pages = {155 -- 178}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Information structure has been one of the central topics of recent linguistic research. This review discusses a wide range of current approaches with particular reference to African languages, as these have been playing a crucial role in advancing our knowledge about the diversity of and recurring patterns in both meaning and form of information structural notions. We focus on cross-linguistic functional frameworks, the investigation of prosody, formal syntactic theories, and relevant effects of semantic interpretation. Information structure is a thriving research domain that promises to yield important advances in our general understanding of human language.}, language = {en} } @article{PfeilGenzelKuegler2015, author = {Pfeil, Simone and Genzel, Susanne and K{\"u}gler, Frank}, title = {Empirical investigation of focus and exhaustivity in Akan}, series = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, journal = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, number = {19}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1614-4708}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-83774}, pages = {87 -- 109}, year = {2015}, abstract = {It has been observed for many African languages that focussed subjects have to appear outside of their syntactic base position, as opposed to focussed objects, which can remain in-situ. This is known as subjectobject asymmetry of focus marking, which Fiedler et al. (2010) claim to hold also for Akan. Genzel (2013), on the other hand, argues that Akan does not exhibit a subject-object focus asymmetry. A questionnaire study and a production experiment were carried out to investigate whether focussed subjects may indeed be realized in-situ in Akan. The results suggest that (i) focussed subjects do not have to be obligatorily realized ex-situ, and that (ii) the syntactic preference for the realization of a focussed subject highly depends on exhaustivity.}, language = {en} }