[Lingtyp] from connector to focus marker

[mohammad rasekh]

Dear Jurgen, Dear All,Thank you for your comments and the sources. Actually, 'ke' in Persian is used in cleft constructions and it seems the grammatcalization path is from subordinator > focus marker. However, I don't know the related functions, e.g. rhetorical question marker, mirativity marker and indifference marker are related to this development, if they are. 
And, it has not been clitic in the history of this language, but in marking adverbial clauses, it appears in different positions (not clause finally). 
Thank you all again.Mohammad
Mohammad Rasekh-Mahand Linguistics Department,Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran.Postal Code: 6517838695  https://basu.academia.edu/MohammadRasekhmahand
 

    On Sunday, February 19, 2023 at 05:22:40 AM GMT+3:30, Juergen Bohnemeyer <jb77 at buffalo.edu> wrote:  
 
 
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 

Office: 642 Baldy Hall, UB North Campus
Mailing address: 609 Baldy Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260 
Phone: (716) 645 0127 
Fax: (716) 645 3825
Email: jb77 at buffalo.edu
Web: http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~jb77/ 

Office hours Tu/Th 3:30-4:30pm in 642 Baldy or via Zoom (Meeting ID 585 520 2411; Passcode Hoorheh) 

There’s A Crack In Everything - That’s How The Light Gets In 
(Leonard Cohen)  
 
-- 
 
  
 
  
 
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
   
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20230220/00d48709/attachment.htm>