New Benjamins book: Fiedler & Schhwarz - The Expression of Information Structure

[Paul Peranteau]

The Expression of Information Structure. A documentation of its 
diversity across Africa.
  Edited by Ines Fiedler and Anne Schwarz  (Humboldt University, 
Berlin / Humboldt University, Berlin & James Cook University, Cairns)

Typological Studies in Language 91
2010. xii, 383 pp.

Hardbound  978 90 272 0672 5 / EUR 105.00 / USD 158.00
e-Book – Not yet available  978 90 272 8842 4 / EUR 105.00 / USD 158.00

This book analyzes the different patterns found across subsaharan 
Africa to express information structure. Based on languages from all 
four African language phyla, it documents the great diversity of 
linguistic means used to encode information-structural phenomena and 
is therefore highly relevant for some of the most pertinent questions 
in modern linguistic theory. The special contribution of this volume 
is the perspective on a variety of information-structurally related 
phenomena which go far beyond classical notions such as focus and 
topic. Detailed investigations are dedicated to so far less discussed 
focal subcategories, like focus on verbal operators or the 
thetic-categorical distinction. Finally, the information-structural 
configuration of unmarked, canonical sentence structures is 
recognized. The papers provide evidence that the formal means to 
encode information-structural categories range from means such as 
morphological markers or syntactic operations, famous in linguistics, 
to less well-known strategies, such as defocalization rather than 
focalization.

Table of contents

Introduction
Ines Fiedler and Anne Schwarz vii–xii
Information structure marking in Sandawe texts
Helen Eaton 1–34
Topic and focus fields in Naki
Jeff Good 35–68
The relation between focus and theticity in the Tuu family
Tom Güldemann 69–94
Focus marking in Aghem: Syntax or semantics?
Larry M. Hyman 95–116
On the obligatoriness of focus marking: Evidence from Tar B'arma
Peggy Jacob 117–144
Focalisation and defocalisation in Isu
Roland Kießling 145–164
Discourse function of inverted passives in Makua-Marevone narratives
Oliver Kröger 165–192
Topic-focus articulation in Taqbaylit and Tashelhit Berber
Amina Mettouchi and Axel Fleisch 193–232
Focus in Atlantic languages
Stéphane Robert 233–260
Topic and focus construction asymmetry
Ronald P. Schaefer and Francis Oisaghaede Egbokhare 261–286
Verb-and-predication focus markers in Gur
Anne Schwarz 287–314
Why contrast matters: Information structure in Gawwada (East Cushitic)
Mauro Tosco 315–348
Focus and the Ejagham verb system
John R. Watters 349–376
Language index  377
Subject index  379–383


"Through its presentation of studies of information structure in 
languages from all of the major indigenous language phyla of Africa 
this volume makes a significant contribution to this increasingly 
important area of linguistic theory and analysis. Of particular 
interest are the investigations of special verb-focus marking in 
several languages, a phenomenon to which insufficient attention has 
been paid in the past. This volume is a welcome addition to the 
growing literature on the typological variation in information 
structure across languages."
Robert D. Van Valin Jr., Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf

Paul Peranteau (paul at benjamins.com)
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