Exhaustive Focus Marking in Akan
- This paper reopens the discussion on focus marking in Akan (Kwa, Niger-Congo) by examining the semantics of the so-called focus marker in the language. It is shown that the so-called focus marker expresses exhaustivity when it occurs in a sentence with narrow focus. The study employs four standard tests for exhaustivity proposed in the literature to examine the semantics of Akan focus constructions (Szabolsci 1981, 1994; É. Kiss 1998; Hartmann and Zimmermann 2007). It is shown that although a focused entity with the so-called focus marker nà is interpreted to mean ‘only X and nothing/nobody else,’ this meaning appears to be pragmatic.
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| Author details: | Reginald Akuoko Duah |
|---|---|
| URN: | urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-83748 |
| ISSN: | 1614-4708 |
| ISSN: | 1866-4725 |
| Title of parent work (English): | Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632 |
| Publisher: | Universitätsverlag Potsdam |
| Place of publishing: | Potsdam |
| Publication type: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Year of first publication: | 2015 |
| Publication year: | 2015 |
| Publishing institution: | Universität Potsdam |
| Release date: | 2015/11/13 |
| Tag: | Akan; cleft; ex situ; exhaustivity; focus marker; in situ; subject/non-subject asymmetry |
| Issue: | 19 |
| First page: | 1 |
| Last Page: | 28 |
| Organizational units: | Zentrale und wissenschaftliche Einrichtungen / Sonderforschungsbereich 632 - Informationsstruktur |
| DDC classification: | 8 Literatur / 80 Literatur, Rhetorik, Literaturwissenschaft / 800 Literatur und Rhetorik |
| Publishing method: | Open Access |
| Collection(s): | Universität Potsdam / Schriftenreihen / Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632, ISSN 1866-4725 / ISIS (2015) 19 |
| License (German): |  Keine öffentliche Lizenz: Unter Urheberrechtsschutz |
