Latest documents http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/index/index/ Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:56:46 +0100 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:56:46 +0100 http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12582 Ziel dieses Artikels ist es, allgemeine Frage- und Problemstellungen bei der Untersuchung des Phänomens Fokus in ausgewählten Gur- und Kwasprachen vorzustellen, d.h. unsere Forschungsvorhaben kurz zu skizzieren, ohne dass wir bereits auf Ergebnisse eingehen können. Dieser Aufsatz gibt einen Überblick über das Forschungsfeld, damit verbundene Problemstellungen und die von uns anvisierten Aufgaben und Methoden: - Was verstehen wir unter Fokus? - Warum sind die Gur- und Kwasprachen für diese Untersuchung von Relevanz? - Welche Korrelationen lassen sich zwischen Struktur und semantisch/pragmatischen Merkmalen erkennen? - Welche Entwicklung haben Fokusstrukturen genommen? - Welche methodischen Grundlagen liegen unseren Untersuchungen zugrunde? Ines Fiedler; Brigitte Reineke; Anne Schwarz bookpart http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12582 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:56:46 +0100 http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12577 In Buli, tone indicates lexical information as well as grammatical information. The changing of tone patterns regularly observed on lexemes is covered best by an autosegmental approach with autonomous tonal and segmental tiers. It reveals considerable deviations between underlying and surfacing tones at several morpho- yntactic points. Realization of tone is sometimes oppressed or delayed. Cause for such disturbances is in all cases a low tone which spreads to the right and affects following high tones with different results. The aim of this paper is to show how L spreading acts and how it is integrated in the system of tonal contrast. Anne Schwarz article http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12577 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:48:35 +0100 http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12576 This article deals with some aspects of negation in Buli, a Gur language spoken by the Bulsa people in Northern Ghana. Anne Schwarz article http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12576 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:35:59 +0100 http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12562 Welchen Bedingungen unterliegt menschliche Kommunikation? Welche sprachlichen Mittel verwendet ein Sprecher um sicherzustellen, dass sein Zuhörer tatsächlich das versteht, was er kommunizieren möchte? Wie also »verpacken« wir wichtige und weniger wichtige Informationen im alltäglichen Diskurs? Diesen und anderen Fragen geht der SFB 632 »Informationsstruktur«, ein gemeinsames Forschungsunternehmen von Linguisten verschiedener Teildisziplinen der Universität Potsdam und der Humboldt-Universität, nach. Ines Fiedler; Anne Schwarz; Manfred Krifka article http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12562 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:00:05 +0200 http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12561 This article discusses the divergent status of the two particles lé and lá in the grammar of Konkomba, a Gur language (Niger-Congo) of the Gurma subgroup. While previous studies claim that both particles are focus markers, this author argues that only the particle lá should be analyzed as a pure pragmatic device. Distributional studies suggest that the use of particle lé, on the other hand, is only required under specific focus conditions, and primarily represents a syntactic device. Anne Schwarz article http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12561 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:45:28 +0200 http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12560 Buli is an Oti-Volta tone language spoken in Northern Ghana. This paper outlines the basic features of its tonal system and explores whether and in which way pitch respectively phonemic tone is approached as a means to indicate the pragmatic category of focus. Pursued are cases with focus-related surface tone changes as well as cases where pitch could help to disambiguate between broad and narrow foci. It is argued that focus is not consistently encoded by pitch or tone. Parallel findings for the closely related languages Kopen o (phonetic symbol)nni and Dagbani suggest that the apparent lack of significant prosodic focus signals in Buli might pertain to a larger group of tonal languages of the Gur family. Anne Schwarz article http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12560 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:37:11 +0200 http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12559 0. Introduction 1. Observations concerning the structure of morphosyntactically marked focus constructions 1.1 First observation: SF vs. NSF asymmetry 1.2 Second observation: NSF-NAR parallelism 1.3 Affirmative ex-situ focus constructions (SF, NSF), and narrative clauses (NAR) 2. Grammaticalization 2.1 Cleft hypothesis 2.2 Movement hypothesis 2.3 Narrative hypothesis 2.3.1 Back- or Foregrounding? 2.3.2 Converse directionality of FM and conjunction 3. Language specific analysis 4. Conclusionary remarks References Ines Fiedler; Anne Schwarz other http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12559 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:25:57 +0200 http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12558 Anne Schwarz other http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12558 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:21:47 +0200 http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12557 Anne Schwarz other http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12557 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:15:58 +0200 http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12554 In our presentation we will outline the verb system of Lelemi and concentrate on certain “focal” aspects which are of primary interest to us. Lelemi has two TAMP paradigms: one constituting the so-called “simple tenses”, the other the so-called “relative tenses” (Allan 1973), although not every “simple tense” has a counterpart in the “relative tenses”. The simple paradigm is formed by subject prefixes (prefixed pronouns for 1st or 2nd person and noun class pronouns for 3rd persons) and the verb form whereas the relative paradigm is build up by the obligatory use of an external subject noun, an invariable verb prefix, and the verb form. While the simple paradigm is used in quite a lot of syntactic environments the relative paradigm only shows up in relative clauses with the subject being the head as well as in subject and sentence focus constructions including questions concerning the subject. We will show some interesting interactions between the grammatical expression of focus and the verb system and sketch the grammaticalisation path of the morpheme nà. Anne Schwarz; Ines Fiedler other http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12554 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:00:58 +0200 http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12550 Wenngleich Brigitte Reineke vieler Zungen mächtig ist, möchte ich mich im Folgenden der von ihr Zeit ihres Lebens besonders präferierten Gruppe der Gur- und Kwasprachen und ihren aktuellen Forschungsinteressen in diesen widmen. Anne Schwarz other http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12550 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:53:20 +0200 http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12549 Research on adverbials in sentence-medial position in the North- Ghanaian Gur language Buli suggests that the language offers two divergent slots for adverbials between subject and verb. Special attention is paid to the group of sentence-medial deictic temporal adverbials. While they have the potential to develop into tense markers, this process seems to depend on special information structural conditions. Anne Schwarz other http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12549 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:47:04 +0200 http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12548 Anne Schwarz; Svetlana Petrova other http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12548 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:40:04 +0200 http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12547 The project investigates focus phenomena in the two genetically relatedWest African Gur and Kwa language groups of the Niger-Congo phylum. Most of its members are tone languages, they are similar with respect to word order typology (all are SVO languages), but of divergent morphological type (agglutinating Gur versus isolating Kwa). Ines Fiedler; Brigitte Reineke; Anne Schwarz other http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12547 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:34:20 +0200 http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12545 Ines Fiedler; Katharina Hartmann; Brigitte Reineke; Anne Schwarz; Malte Zimmermann other http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12545 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:08:33 +0200 http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12542 This talk concerns the copula system in Buli, a Ghanaian language which has also been attested in Bahia (Rodrigues 1935, Zwernemann 1968). Special focus will be put on the categorization of two copula-reminiscent elements for which I will propose a discoursepragmatic analysis. Anne Schwarz other http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12542 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:26:13 +0200 http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12541 This talk deals with the pragmatic notion topic and its encoding in Buli and some related Ghanaian Gur languages and reveals that it is responsible for several intricate phenomena in the grammar of these languages. Anne Schwarz other http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12541 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:18:40 +0200 http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12540 This talk presents a study on information structure in the under-documented Gur language Baatonum (Bénin and Nigeria, language code bba). Anne Schwarz other http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12540 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:11:08 +0200 http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12539 This talk deals with the interdependence between the pragmatic categories topic and focus as displayed by certain alleged focus marking particles of some West African languages. Anne Schwarz article http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12539 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:53:50 +0200 http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/11867 The guidelines for Information Structure include instructions for the annotation of Information Status (or ‘givenness’), Topic, and Focus, building upon a basic syntactic annotation of nominal phrases and sentences. A procedure for the annotation of these features is proposed. Michael Götze; Thomas Weskott; Cornelia Endriss; Ines Fiedler; Stefan Hinterwimmer; Svetlana Petrova; Anne Schwarz; Stavros Skopeteas; Ruben Stoel article http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/11867 Tue, 05 May 2009 13:32:12 +0200 http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/10073 The paper investigates focus marking devices in the scarcely documented North-Ghanaian Gur language Konkomba. The two particles lé and lá occur under specific focus conditions and are therefore regarded as focus markers in the sparse literature. Comparing the distribution and obligatoriness of both alleged focus markers however, I show that one of the particles, lé, is better analyzed as a connective particle, i.e. as a syntactic rather than as a genuine pragmatic marker, and that comparable syntactic focus marking strategies for sentence-initial constituents are also known from related languages. Anne Schwarz conferenceobject http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/10073 Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:36:59 +0100 http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/10057 This paper investigates the structural properties of morphosyntactically marked focus constructions, focussing on the often neglected non-focal sentence part in African tone languages. Based on new empirical evidence from five Gur and Kwa languages, we claim that these focus expressions have to be analysed as biclausal constructions even though they do not represent clefts containing restrictive relative clauses. First, we relativize the partly overgeneralized assumptions about structural correspondences between the out-of-focus part and relative clauses, and second, we show that our data do in fact support the hypothesis of a clause coordinating pattern as present in clause sequences in narration. It is argued that we deal with a non-accidental, systematic feature and that grammaticalization may conceal such basic narrative structures. Ines Fiedler; Anne Schwarz article http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/10057 Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:47:11 +0100