l' ;! :I ·1 .\ ZASPiL Nr. 45 - September 2006 Expression of Information Structure i~ the Bantu Language Northern . Sotho Sabine Zerbian EXPRESSION OF INFORMATION STRUCTURE IN THE BANTU LANGUAGE NORTHERN SOTHO Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades doctor philosophiae (Dr. phil.) eingereicht an der Philosophischen Fakultat¨ II der Humboldt-Universitat¨ zu Berlin von Sabine Zerbian, M.A. geboren am 27. Juni 1975 in Berlin/ Deutschland Prasident¨ der Humboldt-Universitat¨ zu Berlin Prof. Dr. Christoph Markschies Dekan der Philosophischen Fakultat¨ II Prof. Dr. Erhard Schutz¨ Gutachter: 1. Prof. Dr. Manfred Krifka (Humboldt-Universitat¨ zu Berlin) 2. PD Dr. Hubert Truckenbrodt (Eberhard Karls Universitat¨ Tubingen)¨ Tag der mundlichen¨ Prufung:¨ ii Contents Zusammenfassung vii Acknowledgements xi List of abbreviations xiii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Overview . 1 1.2 Information Structure . 4 1.2.1 What is information structure? . 4 1.2.2 Parts of information structure . 5 1.2.3 Information structural units used in the thesis . 10 1.2.4 Information structure in Bantu languages . 12 1.2.5 Summary . 13 1.3 Controlling for focus: Methodology . 13 1.4 A cross-linguistic survey of focus marking . 15 1.4.1 Definition of grammatical marking of focus . 15 1.4.2 Prosodic marking of focus . 16 1.4.3 Morphological marking of focus . 17 1.4.4 Syntactic marking of focus . 19 1.4.5 Summary: Interaction . 20 1.5 Optimality Theory . 21 1.5.1 The basic OT-mechanism . 21 1.5.2 OT in syntax . 25 1.5.3 A case study for OT at interfaces: Focus in English and Italian . 33 1.5.4 Factorial typology . 39 1.5.5 OT in semantics . 40 1.6 The language Northern Sotho . 41 1.6.1 Linguistic studies on Northern Sotho . 42 1.7 Linguistic properties of Northern Sotho . 44 1.7.1 Tone . 44 1.7.2 Basic word order . 45 1.7.3 Agreement . 45 1.7.4 Present Tense morpheme -a-.................... 60 iii iv CONTENTS 2 Syntax and focus in Northern Sotho 65 2.1 Introduction . 65 2.2 Syntactic reflexes of focus in Northern Sotho . 66 2.2.1 Objects and adverbials . 66 2.2.2 Subjects . 69 2.2.3 Focus on modifiers . 72 2.2.4 Focus on prepositions . 75 2.2.5 Focus on the verb . 76 2.2.6 Summary . 78 2.3 Alternative syntactic focus positions . 78 2.3.1 Left-peripheral focus position . 79 2.3.2 Immediately postverbal focus position . 81 2.3.3 Clause-final focus position . 83 2.3.4 Summary . 86 2.4 Grammatical reflexes of information structure . 87 2.4.1 Deletion and pronominalization . 87 2.4.2 Dislocation . 92 2.4.3 Summary . 96 2.5 A note on the Present Tense morpheme -a-................. 96 2.5.1 Information structural approach to -a-............... 97 2.5.2 Against -a- as a focus marker . 99 2.5.3 The syntactic approach . 102 2.5.4 Discussion: Relation between syntax and pragmatics . 103 2.6 Conclusion . 104 3 Prosody and focus in Northern Sotho 107 3.1 Introduction . 107 3.2 Background . 108 3.2.1 Penultimate lengthening . 109 3.2.2 Finality restriction . 111 3.2.3 OCP . 115 3.2.4 Summary . 117 3.3 Phonological Phrasing in Northern Sotho . 117 3.3.1 Theoretical background . 117 3.3.2 Describing the domain . 122 3.3.3 Determining the constituent . 131 3.3.4 Phrasing algorithm . 133 3.3.5 Prominence in Bantu . 136 3.3.6 Summary . 143 3.4 Influence of focus on prosody . 144 3.4.1 Introduction . 144 3.4.2 Prosody in tone languages . 145 3.4.3 Expectation . 148 3.5 Production study . 149 3.5.1 Aim . 149 CONTENTS v 3.5.2 Procedure . 149 3.5.3 Material . 150 3.5.4 Prosodic analysis . 151 3.5.5 Summary . 157 3.6 Perception study . 157 3.6.1 Aim . 157 3.6.2 Pre-test . 158 3.6.3 Procedure . 158 3.6.4 Material . 159 3.6.5 Results . 161 3.6.6 Summary . 163 3.7 Summary of the experimental part . 163 3.8 Conclusion and discussion . 164 3.8.1 Prominence-focus correspondence . 165 3.8.2 Lack of focus marking: Areas for further research . 168 4 The preverbal position in Northern Sotho 171 4.1 Introduction . 171 4.2 Discourse-pragmatic role of the subject . 173 4.2.1 Subjects in Southern Bantu . 174 4.2.2 Testing topic properties in Northern Sotho . 179 4.2.3 Summary . 190 4.3 Influence of information structure on syntax . 191 4.3.1 The interface constraint . 192 4.3.2 Analysis . 198 4.3.3 Summary . 205 4.4 Conclusion . 205 4.4.1 Discussion . 206 4.4.2 Area of further research . 207 5 The use of clefts in Northern Sotho 209 5.1 Cleft sentences in Northern Sotho . 210 5.1.1 The meaning of cleft sentences . 211 5.1.2 Subject clefts in Northern Sotho . 212 5.1.3 Non-subject clefts in Northern Sotho . 213 5.1.4 A corpus study . 219 5.1.5 Summary . 224 5.2 The structure of clefts in Northern Sotho . 225 5.3 Form-meaning correspondence: Clefts with objects . 227 5.3.1 Simple form as the optimal form . 228 5.3.2 Essentials of Bidirectional OT . 230 5.3.3 Analysis . 231 5.3.4 Alternative approach . 232 5.4 Blocking: Clefts with subjects . 233 5.4.1 Restriction on transitive verbs . 233 5.4.2 Emergence of the cleft . 234 vi CONTENTS 5.5 Areas for future research . 235 5.5.1 Ambiguity in Bidirectional OT . 235 5.5.2 Optionality within OT . 238 5.6 Summary . 242 5.7 Recapitulatory remarks . 243 Appendix 245 Erklarung¨ 273 Lebenslauf 275 Zusammenfassung Der grammatische Ausdruck von Informationsstruktur als Forschungsgebiet hat in den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten eine Renaissance erlebt. Dabei sind Forschungen zu Bantu- sprachen vergleichsweise gering in Anbetracht der Große¨ der Sprachfamilie (circa 300 Sprachen). Die vorliegende Dissertation untersucht daher den grammatischen Ausdruck der informationsstrukturellen Kategorie Fokus im Nord-Sotho, einer Bantusprache der Republik Sudafrika.¨ Sie bietet eine systematische Untersuchung zur Verankerung von in- formationsstrukturellen Kategorien in der Grammatik dieser Sprache und verwendet dafur¨ eine etablierte Methodologie. Dadurch soll einerseits das Verstandnis¨ erweitert werden, wie und ob die Kategorie Fokus in den Sprachen der Welt markiert ist, und zum anderen sollen die gewonnenen Daten einen sprachubergreifenden¨ Vergleich erlauben. Die Hauptthese dieser Dissertation ist, dass Nord-Sotho keinen obligatorischen Ge- brauch von grammatischen Mitteln zur Markierung von Fokus macht, weder in der Syn- tax noch in der Prosodie oder Morphologie. Trotzdem strukturiert diese Sprache eine Außerung¨.