[Lingtyp] copula as focus marker

[Timur Maisak]

Dear Christian,
let me add an example from another area. In Nakh-Daghestanian, focus
constructions with a "displaced" copula following a focused constituent are
common, although usually the predicate takes a non-finite form. However, at
least in Godoberi (< Avar-Andic), the focus marker =da co-occurs with the
finite aorist (perfective past) in past-tense declarative clauses:

ʕali-di=da hanq’u b-iɬi.
Ali-ERG=FOC house N-build.AOR
‘ALI built the house.’ (Kazenin 1996: 228)

The Godoberi enclitic present-tense copula is also =da, and it is
impossible to use both the focus marker =da and the copula =da in one
clause (e.g. when =da is also part of a periphrastic form). Discussing the
origin of the focalizer =da, Kazenin (1996: 229) suggests a “floating
analysis”, claiming that that both da-morphemes “are instances of one and
the same grammatical element, or, to put it more simply, that focus is
marked by the copula attached to a focused constituent instead of a verb”.
However, in examples like the one above, =da can be already described as a
grammaticalized focalizer which is only diachronically related to the
copula, but is now a separate grammatical item (because the "aorist +
copula" combination does not occur as a periphrastic tense-aspect form).

Kazenin, Konstantin. 1996. Focus constructions and WH-questions. In
Aleksandr E. Kibrik (ed.), Godoberi, 227–236. München: LINCOM Europa.

Best,
Timur Maisak

пн, 13 мар. 2023 г. в 10:26, G. Khan <gk101 at cam.ac.uk>:

> Dear Christian,
>
> Copulas acting as focus markers without a relative particle are common in
> Semitic, see:
>
>
>
> Goldenberg, Gideon. 1973. ‘Imperfectly-Transformed Cleft Sentences’. In *Proceedings
> of the World Congress of Jewish Studies*, 1:127–33. Jerusalem: World
> Union of Jewish Studies. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23515560.
>
> Khan, Geoffrey. 2018. ‘Remarks on the Syntax and Historical Development of
> the Copula In North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic Dialects’. *Aramaic Studies* 16:
> 234–69.
>
> Khan, Geoffrey. 2019. ‘Copulas, Cleft Sentences and Focus Markers in
> Biblical Hebrew’. In *Ancient Texts and Modern Readers: Studies in
> Ancient Hebrew Linguistics and Bible Translation*, edited by Gideon R.
> Kotzé, Christian S. Locatell, and John A. Messarra, 14–62. Leiden-Boston:
> Brill.
>
>
>
> I am attaching them here.
>
>
>
> Best wishes
>
> Geoffrey
>
>
>
> Geoffrey Khan
>
> Regius Professor of Hebrew
>
> University of Cambridge
>
> Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
>
> Sidgwick Avenue
>
> Cambridge CB3 9DA, UK
>
>
>
> *From:* Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> *On Behalf Of
> *Christian Lehmann
> *Sent:* 12 March 2023 20:27
> *To:* LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
> *Subject:* [Lingtyp] copula as focus marker
>
>
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> the literature available to me adduces a Caribbean Spanish example of what
> I am looking for:
>
> Juan compró fue un libro.
> John bought was a book
> 'A book is what John bought.'
>
> The copula here separates the topical portion of the clause from the
> comment portion, including importantly the focus (to which this portion
> reduces in the example). Different sources of such a construction are
> conceivable, for instance a pseudo-cleft:
>
> Lo que Juan compró fue un libro.
> it that John bought was a book
> 'What John bought was a book.'
>
> What concerns me at the moment, however, is the bare copula in the
> function of a focus marker. I am sure I have seen or heard sentences like
> the following in Portuguese:
>
> O João comprou foi um livro.
>
> or with neutralization of tense and, thus, reduction to the default form
> of the copula:
>
> O João comprou é um livro.
>
> However, I cannot seem to find evidence for this, neither primary data nor
> linguistic treatments of it. Could you please help me out? Both references
> to the linguistic literature and examples, preferably from Portuguese, but
> also from any other language (I do have data from Mandarin!) would be
> welcome.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Christian
>
> --
>
> Prof. em. Dr. Christian Lehmann
> Rudolfstr. 4
> 99092 Erfurt
> Deutschland
>
> Tel.:
>
> +49/361/2113417
>
> E-Post:
>
> christianw_lehmann at arcor.de
>
> Web:
>
> https://www.christianlehmann.eu
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