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Over the last two decades, focus has become a prominent topic in
major fields in linguistic research (syntax, semantics, phonology).
Focus Strategies in African Languages contributes to the ongoing
discussion of focus by investigating focus-related phenomena in a
range of African languages, most of which have been
under-represented in the theoretical literature on focus. The
articles in the volume look at focus strategies in Niger-Congo and
Afro-Asiatic languages from several theoretical and methodological
perspectives, ranging from detailed generative analysis to careful
typological generalization across languages. Their common aim is to
deepen our understanding of whether and how the
information-structural category of focus is represented and marked
in natural language. Topics investigated are, among others, the
relation of focus and prosody, the effects of information structure
on word order, ex situ versus in situ strategies of focus marking,
the inventory of focus marking devices, focus and related
constructions, focus-sensitive particles. The present inquiry into
the focus systems of African languages has repercussions on
existing theories of focus. It reveals new focus strategies as well
as fine-tuned focus distinctions that are not discussed in the
theoretical literature, which is almost exclusively based on
well-documented intonation languages.
In this book leading scholars provide state-of-the-art overviews of
approaches to the formal expression of information structure in
natural language and its interaction with general principles of
human cognition and communication. They present critical accounts
of current understanding of how aspects of grammar, such as
prosody, syntax, morphology, semantics, and pragmatics, interact in
the packing and unpacking of information in communication. They
also look at the psycholinguistics behind the production and
perception of information-structural categories. The book reflects
the advances in recent research on all central aspects of the
subject, including concepts of focus versus background, topic
versus comment, and given versus new, and the kinds of inferences
required to make sense of different combinations of words, syntax,
intonation, and context. The chapters include typological and
diachronic perspectives on information structure. Taken as a whole
the book demonstrates the productive value of combining theoretical
and experimental approaches.
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