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postgraduate thesis: Verbal fronting and focus in Igbo
Title | Verbal fronting and focus in Igbo |
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Authors | |
Advisors | Advisor(s):Matthews, SJ |
Issue Date | 2020 |
Publisher | The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) |
Citation | Ezeamuzie, O. R.. (2020). Verbal fronting and focus in Igbo. (Thesis). University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR. |
Abstract | This thesis investigates the expression of focus and the phenomenon of verb fronting in Igbo, a Benue-Congo language spoken in the South-Eastern part of Nigeria. Starting from a broader domain of focus, I examine the relationship that exists between different pragmatic focus types and their realisations, narrowing down to the phenomenon of verb fronting with doubling (VFD), a verb focussing device in Igbo which involves the fronting of a non-finite verbal element at the periphery of a sentence whilst retaining a finite verb clause internally.
First, in the general expression of focus in Igbo, I argue that all non-subject focus may be optionally realised ex-situ by fronting and marking the focused item with the morpheme kà. To illustrate this, four pragmatic types of focus are considered: new information focus, corrective focus, selective focus and exhaustive focus. I show that there is no systematic correspondence between any of these focus types and the (morpho)syntactic constructions used in realising them in Igbo. While it is required for a focused subject to be clefted in order to distinguish it from unmarked topic in Igbo, these four focus types may be expressed in-situ or ex-situ. I argue that the use of ex-situ constructions for focus marking in Igbo is a result of pragmatic motivations such as correction, unexpected discourse moves (Hartmann & Zimmermann 2009; Zimmermann 2011) and conversational implicature (Grice 1975).
The second part of the thesis examines verb fronting with doubling (VFD) in Igbo. I show that Igbo VFD is used to express all four pragmatic types of focus discussed in this thesis. For exhaustive focus, I argue that while the Igbo VFD may be interpreted exhaustively, this exhaustive inference arises only as a conversational implicature and can be cancelled. The presence of the focus particle sọ̀ọsọ̀/naānị̄ ‘only’ is required to express asserted exhaustivity on any focused item in Igbo. Igbo is similar to Haitian (Larson & Lefebvre 1991) in that only stage-level predicates may undergo VFD in the language. I also show that Igbo VFD is used to express State of Affairs focus (SoA) in line with Güldemann (2009).
Syntactically, Igbo VFD does not show syntactic pied-piping of arguments or adverbs. I argue that the fronted item in Igbo VFD is a nominal phrase since it can occur with nominal modifiers and demonstratives, but can neither host TAM affixes nor negation. Building on Manfredi (1993) and Stewart (1998; 2001), I provide empirical evidence that favours an analysis of Igbo VFD as derived by fronting a base-generated event-denoting cognate object. The motivation for fronting an event-denoting cognate object when the verb is under focus, comes from a categorical restriction in Igbo that bars verbs from being formally focus marked. This restriction is also responsible for the focus ambiguity observed between VP-focus and object focus in Igbo. I propose that fronting a cognate object or a direct object in the focussing of a verb or a VP respectively could be classified as an information structure repair strategy in Igbo.
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Degree | Master of Philosophy |
Subject | Igbo language - Verb |
Dept/Program | Linguistics |
Persistent Identifier | http://hdl.handle.net/10722/298864 |
DC Field | Value | Language |
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dc.contributor.advisor | Matthews, SJ | - |
dc.contributor.author | Ezeamuzie, Onyinyechukwu Rhoda | - |
dc.date.accessioned | 2021-04-16T11:16:34Z | - |
dc.date.available | 2021-04-16T11:16:34Z | - |
dc.date.issued | 2020 | - |
dc.identifier.citation | Ezeamuzie, O. R.. (2020). Verbal fronting and focus in Igbo. (Thesis). University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR. | - |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10722/298864 | - |
dc.description.abstract | This thesis investigates the expression of focus and the phenomenon of verb fronting in Igbo, a Benue-Congo language spoken in the South-Eastern part of Nigeria. Starting from a broader domain of focus, I examine the relationship that exists between different pragmatic focus types and their realisations, narrowing down to the phenomenon of verb fronting with doubling (VFD), a verb focussing device in Igbo which involves the fronting of a non-finite verbal element at the periphery of a sentence whilst retaining a finite verb clause internally. First, in the general expression of focus in Igbo, I argue that all non-subject focus may be optionally realised ex-situ by fronting and marking the focused item with the morpheme kà. To illustrate this, four pragmatic types of focus are considered: new information focus, corrective focus, selective focus and exhaustive focus. I show that there is no systematic correspondence between any of these focus types and the (morpho)syntactic constructions used in realising them in Igbo. While it is required for a focused subject to be clefted in order to distinguish it from unmarked topic in Igbo, these four focus types may be expressed in-situ or ex-situ. I argue that the use of ex-situ constructions for focus marking in Igbo is a result of pragmatic motivations such as correction, unexpected discourse moves (Hartmann & Zimmermann 2009; Zimmermann 2011) and conversational implicature (Grice 1975). The second part of the thesis examines verb fronting with doubling (VFD) in Igbo. I show that Igbo VFD is used to express all four pragmatic types of focus discussed in this thesis. For exhaustive focus, I argue that while the Igbo VFD may be interpreted exhaustively, this exhaustive inference arises only as a conversational implicature and can be cancelled. The presence of the focus particle sọ̀ọsọ̀/naānị̄ ‘only’ is required to express asserted exhaustivity on any focused item in Igbo. Igbo is similar to Haitian (Larson & Lefebvre 1991) in that only stage-level predicates may undergo VFD in the language. I also show that Igbo VFD is used to express State of Affairs focus (SoA) in line with Güldemann (2009). Syntactically, Igbo VFD does not show syntactic pied-piping of arguments or adverbs. I argue that the fronted item in Igbo VFD is a nominal phrase since it can occur with nominal modifiers and demonstratives, but can neither host TAM affixes nor negation. Building on Manfredi (1993) and Stewart (1998; 2001), I provide empirical evidence that favours an analysis of Igbo VFD as derived by fronting a base-generated event-denoting cognate object. The motivation for fronting an event-denoting cognate object when the verb is under focus, comes from a categorical restriction in Igbo that bars verbs from being formally focus marked. This restriction is also responsible for the focus ambiguity observed between VP-focus and object focus in Igbo. I propose that fronting a cognate object or a direct object in the focussing of a verb or a VP respectively could be classified as an information structure repair strategy in Igbo. | - |
dc.language | eng | - |
dc.publisher | The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) | - |
dc.relation.ispartof | HKU Theses Online (HKUTO) | - |
dc.rights | The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works. | - |
dc.rights | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. | - |
dc.subject.lcsh | Igbo language - Verb | - |
dc.title | Verbal fronting and focus in Igbo | - |
dc.type | PG_Thesis | - |
dc.description.thesisname | Master of Philosophy | - |
dc.description.thesislevel | Master | - |
dc.description.thesisdiscipline | Linguistics | - |
dc.description.nature | published_or_final_version | - |
dc.date.hkucongregation | 2021 | - |
dc.identifier.mmsid | 991044360594503414 | - |