Focus Constructions in Ɔkere

Abstract

Focus construction, as a way of presenting new information, is one of the essentials in language. This work is a descriptive study of the phenomenon of focus in Ɔkere, a hill Guan language spoken at Akuapem. Investigating the strategies involved in focus construction in the language, it is observed that Ɔkere marks focus lexically and syntactically. The morpheme ne is used to mark focus. Other morphemes named Weakly Emphatic Morphemes that are used to signal information are also identified. They are nso, mpo, ako, ara and koraa. Major syntactic categories are fronted for focus in Ɔkere. Content question words can also be fronted. It is realised that noun phrases, nominalised verbs, predicative adjectives, temporal and locative adverbs can be fronted for focus. Another major finding is that animate NPs do not leave gaps when they are fronted for focus. However, fronted inanimate NPs do. The gap left behind by the fronted animate NP is filled with a resumptive pronoun that refers back to it. The pragmatic properties of the focus marker and the focused elements are investigated in this thesis.