[Lingtyp] from connector to focus marker

[Juergen Bohnemeyer]

Dear Mohammad – The following may be obvious to you. In which case, please ignore it.

There are two reasonably well-established grammaticalization pathways between connectives (and complementizers in particular) and focus markers (that I’m aware of). Both involve clefts. Clefts may involve a complementizer/subordinator in the subordinate clause, which is often a relative clause or RC-like construction. And clefts may of course grammaticalize into clause-internal focus constructions (or may be misanalyzed as such). You will find examples in Heine & Kuteva (2002). Perhaps the earliest widely cited treatment of this nexus is Schachter (1973).

The second route also involves clefts, but in this case, the connection to complementizers is an indirect one: demonstratives are a common grammaticalization source of both copulas and complementizers, and copulas in turn may find their way into clefts, which may again grammaticalize into clause-internal focus constructions (etc.).  Again, you’ll find examples in Heine & Kuteva (2002).

Best – Juergen

Heine, B. & T. Kuteva. (2002). World lexicon of grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schachter, P. (1973). Focus and relativization. Language 49: 19–46.


Juergen Bohnemeyer (He/Him)
Professor, Department of Linguistics
University at Buffalo

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From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of mohammad rasekh <mrasekhmahand at yahoo.com>
Date: Saturday, February 18, 2023 at 5:06 AM
To: LINGTYP LINGTYP <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Subject: [Lingtyp] from connector to focus marker

Dear All,

There is a particle in Persian (Iranian language) which has multiple functions. This particle is ‘ke’, literally meaning ‘that’. Broadly, it has two general/main functions: a)connector (connecting complement, relative and adverbial clauses), b) marking some parts of information structure (focus, rhetorical question, mirativity, indifference, etc.). Concerning this particle, I have two questions:

First, is there any evidence in other languages in which a particle moves from subordinator to information structure marker? If there is, I appreciate providing me with the sources.

Second, the position of ‘ke’ as adverbial clause marker is not fixed. It may appear clause initially, but it moves to different parts of the adverbial clause (not the final position). Actually it ‘shifts’. Is there any evidence in other languages for this ‘subordinator shift’?

Thanks in advance.

Mohammad Rasekh-Mahand


Mohammad Rasekh-Mahand
Linguistics Department,
Bu-Ali Sina University,
Hamedan, Iran.
Postal Code: 6517838695
https://basu.academia.edu/MohammadRasekhmahand<https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbasu.academia.edu%2FMohammadRasekhmahand&data=05%7C01%7Cjb77%40buffalo.edu%7C3d4fbb3b72704fb31e6b08db1197d7ee%7C96464a8af8ed40b199e25f6b50a20250%7C0%7C0%7C638123116100479670%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=byVKaM7boZaYWycbsFcgIFsLP1tqSs0R5RycGvGk42o%3D&reserved=0>
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