Information Structure in Esahie

Abstract

ABSTRACT In everyday communication situations, interlocutors make deliberate efforts to communicate their intended meanings with minimal ambiguity. As a result, interlocutors intentionally employ diverse strategies of packaging information in order to reduce misunderstanding and to aid hearers in minimizing processing effort during interpretation. This study provides a comprehensive description of how information is packaged in Esahie (Kwa, Niger Congo). It primarily discusses how focus and topic constructions are presented in Esahie. Data is collected largely through elicitation from native speakers and radio programs held using Esahie. In analyzing the data, this work is cast in the Functional Grammar theoretical framework. This work reveals among other things that: 􀀀 Esahie combines both syntactic strategies (fronting and or clefting) and lexical strategies to signal information structure. 􀀀 the principal focus marker in Esahie is the lexeme yéyɛ́. 􀀀 verbs cannot be focused in Esahie. 􀀀 Both subject and object arguments cannot be focused in-situ. 􀀀 a focused [+human] argument, in Esahie, must be recapitulated in the default position in the rest of the clause by an anaphoric pronoun, while a gap is left in the case of [-human] arguments. 􀀀 The choice of a sentence with(out) a topicalised/focused constituent in any discourse situation in Esahie is pragmatically and/or semantically determined.

This thesis offers insight into the syntax, semantics and pragmatics of Esahie, with the view to engerdering interest in the research of Information Structure in Ghanaian languages, especially Esahie. Keywords: focus, focus domain, topic marker, scalar marker, focus adverb.