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Information Packaging Constructions in Kwa: Micro-variation and Typology

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Topics in Kwa Syntax

Part of the book series: Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory ((SNLT,volume 78))

Kwa languages such as Akye, Akan, Ewe, Ga, Likpe, Yoruba etc. are not prototypically “topic-prominent” like Chinese nor “focus-prominent” like Somali, yet they have dedicated structural positions in the clause, as well as morphological markers for signalling the information status of the component parts of information units. They could thus be seen as “discourse configurational languages” (Kiss 1995). In this chapter, I first argue for distinct positions in the left periphery of the clause in these languages for scene-setting topics, contrastive topics and focus. I then describe the morpho-syntactic properties of various information packaging constructions and the variations that we find across the languages in this domain.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The term Kwa here corresponds to “Old Kwa” that is, languages belonging to Western ­Benue-Congo and New Kwa in the current classification of Niger-Congo languages see Williamson and Blench 2000. Examples are drawn from the following languages:

    Tano languages: Attié (Ivory Coast), Anyi (Ivory Coast), Akan (Ghana); Ga-Dangme: Ga (Ghana)

    Gbe languages: Ewe (Ghana, Togo, Benin), Fon (Benin), Gun (Benin)

    Ghana-Togo-Mountain languages: Na-Togo: Lelemi (Ghana), Sɛkpele/Likpe (Ghana); Ka-Togo: Tuwuli (Ghana)

  2. 2.

    The following abbreviations have been used:

    1 = first person, 2 = second person, 3 = third person, ANAPH = anaphoric proform, ALL = allative preposition, AGR = agreement, CM = Class marker, CNJ = conjunction, COM = comitative, COMP = complementiser, COP = copula, CQ = content question marker, DEF = definiteness marker, DEIC = deictic marker, DEP = dependent verb marker, DET = determiner, DETRANS = detransitive marker, DIST = distal, EMPH = emphatic utterance final particle, FOC = focus marker, aFOC = term (argument) focus marker, pFOC = predicate focus marker, HAB = habitual, ID = identifier, INDEF = indefiniteness marker, INV = invariable pronoun, ITIVE = itive directional marker, LOC = locative preposition, NEG = negative, NOM = nominaliser, NPRES = non-present, PAST = past, PERF = perfect, PL = plural, POSS = possessive marker, POSSPRO = possessed pronoun, POT = potential, PRES = present, PRIV = privative, PROG = progressive, PROSP = prospective, PROX = proximal, Q = question marker, QUOT = quotative, RED = reduplicative, SCR = subject cross-reference, SG = singular, TOP = topic marker, TM = terminal marker, VENT = ventive.

  3. 3.

    There is similarly a tonal change of the Subject nominal in (9b) compared to its form in (9a). But this tonal change is not distinctive for the focus construction, as the change of the verb is. The change in the tone of the subject also occurs in contrastive topic structures (see Section 7.2).

  4. 4.

    The Ewe predicate focus marker has affinities with an emphatic propositional question introducer and a counterfactual conditional marker (see Ameka 1998). The connections between these functions can be easily established on the basis of typological polysemy.

  5. 5.

    I have maintained the glosses and translations in the sources in these examples. For instance, the form wὲ glossed by Lefebvre and Brousseau as ‘it.is’ should in fact be glossed as FOC. I would also have translated a sentence like (37b) as ‘TAKE Koku took the crab to the market’ rather than as a cleft construction. It is also not clear to me that this construction is necessarily contrastive in its import as the comment by the authors suggest.

  6. 6.

    In his collection of ʃɛkpɛle proverbs, E. Okyerefo translates this utterance as ‘A sheep bears a spot where it likes’. (Proverbs 2).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leiden University Center for Linguistics, van Wijkplaats 4, 2311BX, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Felix K. Ameka

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  1. Felix K. Ameka
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Fac. Humanities, University of Amsterdam, Spuistraat 134, Amsterdam, 1012 VB, Netherlands

    Enoch O. Aboh

  2. Dept. African & Asian Languages &, University of Florida, Gainesville, 32611, U.S.A.

    James Essegbey

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Ameka, F.K. (2010). Information Packaging Constructions in Kwa: Micro-variation and Typology. In: Aboh, E., Essegbey, J. (eds) Topics in Kwa Syntax. Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, vol 78. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3189-1_7

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