[Lingtyp] from connector to focus marker

Mon Mar 6 12:08:45 UTC 2023

Dear Mohammad,

Since you mentioned connectors in general, and not only subordinators, the
following might be of your interest: in (some varieties of) Italian, the
adversative conjunction *ma *is also used as a contrastive/corrective
focus, with pretty much any part of speech -- except perhaps finite verbs,
at least in my usage:

A: *Hai letto il giornale?* B: *Ho letto ma un libro.*
A: 'Have you read the newspapers?' B: (lit.) "I read *but* a book"
(i.e.'[No,] What I read was a book')

A: *Hai lavorato stamattina?* B: *Ho ma dormito*.
A: 'Did you work this morning?': B: (lit.) "I have *but* slept." (i.e.
'[No,] What I did was sleep')

A: *Era calda l'acqua?* B: *Era ma fredda.*
A: 'Was the water warm?' B: (lit.) "It was *but* cold"

A: *Sei venuto in macchina? *B: *Sono venuto ma in bici.*
A: 'Did you come by car?' B: (lit.) "I came *but* by bike.'

(etc.)

The Portuguese cognate *mas *is also very frequently used in contrastive
focus construction, but only in conjunction with the copula *ser*, either
in the present tense or in the tense required by the context: this is a
reduced form of the cleft construction already mentioned by Christian
Lehmann (also used in Spanish, but without an adversative element):

A: *Comeste o bolo? *B: *Comi (mas) é/foi uma maçã.*
A: 'Did you eat the cake?' B: (lit.) "I ate *(but) *is/was an apple" (i.e.,
'[No,] What I ate was an apple.')

Best wishes,
R

Timur Maisak <timur.maisak at gmail.com> escreveu no dia segunda, 20/02/2023
à(s) 17:18:

> Dear Mohammad,
>
> In Nakh-Daghestanian languages, the position of some grammatical markers
> (auxiliaries, person markers, pragmatic markers etc.) often depends on the
> information structure: as a rule, this is being described as the position
> after the focused constituent (often, encliticized to the focused
> constituent). In particular, quotative markers in some languages can be
> placed this way. Although their "default" position is on the right edge
> of quotes (1), they can be also found earlier in the quote, presumably
> after the constituent in focus (2). Examples below are from Bagvalal (<
> Avar-Andic) grammar by Kibrik et al. (2001).
>
> (1) “χːeχː mašina b-aχːa b-ah-a=ʁala,
> quickly car N-away N-take-IMP=QUOT
> pojist b-ā-ɬā-χ ek’ʷa=ʁala”.
> train N-come-IPFV-CONV COP=QUOT
> (The woman started to cry:) 'Quickly take you car away from here, the
> train is coming!'
>
> (2) o-ru-r b-as’ĩ, “hindi=ʁala ɬ-ō-ba?”
> that-OBL.HPL-ERG N-ask.AOR where=QUOT go.IPFV-PTCP-HPL
> 'They asked: Where are you going?'
>
> Thus, if we treat quotative markers as a kind of subordinators, (2) above
> illustrates a "shift" in the position of the subordinator. (If I understand
> your reference to "shifting" correctly.)
>
> Kibrik, Aleksandr E., Konstantin I. Kazenin, Ekaterina A. Ljutikova &
> Sergej G. Tatevosov (eds.). 2001. Bagvalinskij jazyk. Grammatika. Teksty.
> Slovari [Bagvalal: Grammar. Texts. Dictionaries.] Moscow: Nasledie.
>
> Best,
> Timur Maisak
>
> пн, 20 февр. 2023 г. в 12:59, mohammad rasekh <mrasekhmahand at yahoo.com>:
>
>> 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
>> <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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