CONSTITUENT STRUCTURE, NATURAL FOCUS HIERARCHY AND FOCUS TYPES IN TOURA

The aim of this contribution is threefold: (i) to show how the complex, morphemically marked focus System of Toura, a language spoken by 25ΌΟΟ people in the mountains of Western Ivory Coast (Bearth 1971), interacts with the rigid configurational SOV constituent structure typical of Mande languages, (ii) to argue that traditional focus-typological parameters drawing on the concepts of informativity or salience fail to account for the functional properties of the Toura focus System, and (iii) to propose an alternative account based on the interaction of logico-semantic parameters with conversational variables. As a contribution to the universal typology of focus phenomena, I shall adduce evidence from Toura in favor of recognizing counter-assertive, counterpresuppositional and counter-implicational types s separate focus categories.