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Mono and Bi-clausal Topics in Likpakpaanl

Dr. ACHEAMPONG, SAMUEL OWOAHENE
Assistant Lecturer
0205202837| 0242980545
soacheampong@uew.edu.gh
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Authors
Acheampong, S. O. and Aremu, D.
Paper Title
Mono and Bi-clausal Topics in Likpakpaanl
Conference Title
Topic, Focus, and Subject: Between grammatical necessity and structural-functional Load
Conference Date
September 19th -23rd , 2023
Conference City
Osnabruck
Conference State/Region
Osnabruck
Conference Country
Germany
Abstract

This talk discusses topic constructions in Likpakpaanl, a Mabia language spoken in Northern Ghana. Likpakpaanl has both aboutness (1a) and contrastive topics (1b) (cf. Büring, 2003, 2016; Krifka, 2008). We argue that the left periphery of the Likpakpaanl clausal structure has only one position for an information-structural notion. In other words, topic and focus cannot co-occur in the left periphery of the clause (cf. Rizzi, 1997). We propose mono-clausal and bi-clausal analyses for -topics and kàn-topics, respectively. While the former projects a TopP in the left periphery, the latter has a bi-clausal structure. To begin with the -topics, we argue that both the topic and form a constituent. Consequently, movement to Spec-TopP must affect the entire -topic. This behaviour of the topic is identical to focus movement in Likpakpaanl, where le appears to be adjacent to the focused constituent ex-situ focus (see Mursell et al., 2022). Kàn-topics, on the other hand, seem to be bi-clausal. We argue for a bi-clausal structure based on two grounds. First, mà-kàn-topics and focus can co-occur on the left side of the matrix clause. Second, resumptive pronouns suggest a bi-clausal analysis since they only occur if the subject is not part of the clause. On the other hand, in -topics, they are absent.

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