Focus in Aghem

Aghem focus marking has long been noted by researchers as an unusual phenomenon, both descriptively and theoretically. The main descriptive generalization is that focus expression in Aghem is intimately connected with the immediate postverbal position, which, since the pioneering work of Watters (1979) and Hyman (1979a), has been known under the abbreviation IAV (immediately after the verb). To illustrate, compare the baseline sentence in (1), where the focus is either on the entire verb phrase or on the object (narrow focus), with (2a), where the narrowly focused subject appears in the IAV, and (2b), where the focused adjunct instead appears in the IAV:

[1]  Benjamin Shaer.  “Manner” adverbs and the association theory: Some problems and solutions , 2003 .

[2]  T. Ernst.  The Syntax of Adjuncts , 2002 .

[3]  L. Haegeman.  Elements of Grammar , 1997 .

[4]  Tom Güldemann,et al.  Present progressive vis-à-vis predication focus in Bantu: a verbal category between semantics and pragmatics , 2003 .

[5]  L. Buell.  The Zulu Conjoint/Disjoint Verb Alternation: Focus or Constituency? * , 2006 .

[6]  Shalom Lappin,et al.  当代语义理论指南 = The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory , 2015 .

[7]  Julia Horvath,et al.  FOCUS in the Theory of Grammar and the Syntax of Hungarian , 1986 .

[8]  Larry M. Hyman.  Focus Marking in Aghem: Syntax or Semantics? , 2007 .

[9]  Denis Creissels.  Conjunctive and disjunctive verb forms in Setswana , 1996 .

[10]  A. Butler,et al.  Split-DPs , generalized EPP and visibility , 2005 .

[11]  Henriëtte de Swart,et al.  Intervention Effects, Monotonicity and Scope , 1992 .

[12]  Judith Aissen.  Topic and focus in Mayan , 1992 .

[13]  E. Anagnostopoulou,et al.  Parametrizing Agr: Word Order, V-Movement and Epp-Checking , 1998 .

[14]  Manfred Bierwisch,et al.  The role of economy principles in linguistic theory , 1997 .

[15]  Enoch O. Aboh,et al.  The Morphosyntax of Complement-Head Sequences: Clause Structure and Word Order Patterns in Kwa , 2003 .

[16]  Richard S. Kayne,et al.  New Thoughts on Stylistic Inversion , 2001 .

[17]  Vera Lee-Schoenfeld.  Beyond Coherence: The syntax of opacity in German , 2007 .

[18]  Jonathan Ginzburg,et al.  Interrogative Investigations: The Form, Meaning, and Use of English Interrogatives , 2001 .

[19]  Veerle van Geenhoven.  Semantic Incorporation and Indefinite Descriptions: Semantic and Syntactic Aspects of Noun Incorporation in West Greenlandic , 1998 .

[20]  Jochen Zeller,et al.  wh-Question Formation in Nguni , 2006 .

[21]  Katalin É. Kiss,et al.  Discourse configurational languages , 1995 .

[22]  Mark C. Baker,et al.  Linkers and the Internal Structure of vP , 2006 .

[23]  Jean-Yves Pollock.  Verb movement, universal grammar and the structure of IP , 1989 .

[24]  T. Reinhart.  Wh-in-situ in the Framework of the Minimalist Program , 1998 .

[25]  Sigrid Beck,et al.  Quantified structures as barriers for LF movement , 1996 .

[26]  Wei-Tien Dylan Tsai,et al.  On economizing the theory of A-bar dependencies , 1999 .

[27]  L. Karttunen.  Syntax and Semantics of Questions , 1977 .

[28]  Hideki Kishimoto,et al.  Wh-In-Situ and Movement in Sinhala Questions , 2005 .

[29]  Jonathan David Bobaljik,et al.  Realizing Germanic Inflection: Why Morphology Does Not Drive Syntax , 2002 .

[30]  Barbara H. Partee,et al.  Genitives, relational nouns, and argument-modifier ambiguity , 2002 .

[31]  Marcel den Dikken,et al.  Particles: On the Syntax of Verb-Particle, Triadic and Causative Constructions , 1995 .

[32]  Larry M. Hyman,et al.  Aghem Grammatical Structure , 1980 .

[33]  M. Saito.  Long distance scrambling in Japanese , 1992 .

[34]  Johan Rooryck,et al.  Licensing Wh‐in‐situ , 2000 .

[35]  Anna Szabolcsi,et al.  Weak islands and an algebraic semantics for scope taking , 1993 .

[36]  K. Kiss.  Identificational focus versus information focus , 1998 .

[37]  Kenji Oda.  V1 and wh-questions: a typology , 2005 .

[38]  Richard S. Kayne,et al.  Stylistic Inversion, Successive Cyclicity and Move NP in French , 1978 .

[39]  Leston Chandler Buell,et al.  Issues in Zulu Verbal Morphosyntax , 2005 .

[40]  Thomas Ernst,et al.  Semantic features and the distribution of adverbs , 2003 .

[41]  T. Reinhart.  Interface economy - Focus and markedness , 1996 .

[42]  Dong Seok Kim.  On the Typology of Wh-Questions , 1999 .

[43]  Cheng-Teh James Huang,et al.  Logical Relations in Chinese and the Theory of Grammar , 1998 .

[44]  Elisabeth Selkirk,et al.  Phonology and Syntax: The Relation between Sound and Structure , 1984 .

[45]  Knud Lambrecht,et al.  Information structure and sentence form , 1994 .

[46]  E. Aldridge.  Ergativity and word order in Austronesian languages , 2004 .

[47]  Elisabeth Selkirk,et al.  Sentence Prosody: Intonation, Stress and Phrasing , 1996 .

[48]  L. Rizzi.  The Fine Structure of the Left Periphery , 1997 .