deontic and focus

[Vanhove]

  Dear colleagues,

I was wondering whether people on the list know of languages that 
grammaticalized a deontic construction into a focus-argument 
construction (or have one and the same construction for both). Beja 
(Cushitic) may be such a language: both values involve a finite verb 
form (limited to the Imperfective and the Narrative for the deontic) to 
which the nominal copula is cliticized:

ani a-dir=i ti-dhani?na?j

1SG.NOM 1SG-kill\PFV=COP.1SG DEF.SG.F-monster
'I am the one who killed the monster'

jam ti-mir-i=e?k gw?-i?=wa

water 2SG.M-find-NAR.2SG.M=COP.2SG.M

'if you find water you must drink'


Thanks in advance

Best wishes

Martine

-- 
Martine Vanhove - Directrice
LLACAN - UMR 8135 du CNRS
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7, rue Guy Môquet B.P. 8
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http://llacan.vjf.cnrs.fr/

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