nà-cleft (non-)exhaustivity
- 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;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).…
| Author details: | Joseph P. De Veaugh-GeissORCiDGND |
|---|---|
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.5698 |
| ISSN: | 2397-1835 |
| Title of parent work (English): | Glossa : a journal of general linguistics |
| Subtitle (English): | variability in Akan |
| Publisher: | Open Library of Humanities |
| Place of publishing: | London |
| Publication type: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Date of first publication: | 2021/12/23 |
| Publication year: | 2021 |
| Release date: | 2023/01/18 |
| Tag: | Akan; definite pseudoclefts; exhaustivity; experimental studies; nà-clefts |
| Volume: | 6 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Article number: | 137 |
| Number of pages: | 41 |
| Funding institution: | Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)German Research Foundation (DFG) [317633480-SFB 1287, SPP 1727] |
| Organizational units: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Strukturbereich Kognitionswissenschaften / Department Linguistik |
| DDC classification: | 4 Sprache / 40 Sprache / 400 Sprache |
| Peer review: | Referiert |
| Publishing method: | DOAJ gelistet |
| License (German): |  CC-BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International |
