Abstract
This article looks at topic marking strategies in Kusaal and related Mabia (Gur) languages: Dagaare, Buli, Moore, Dabgani, and Gurene, spoken in Ghana, Togo and Ivory Coast. It is generally observed that these languages use left dislocation as a topic coding strategy. They either use topic phrases or particles, which may be obligatory or optional. It is argued that the languages under discussion cannot be fully classified as subject prominent languages alongside other Niger-Congo languages. It is shown that these languages demonstrate features that put them in between subject prominent and topic prominent languages. To identify a topic constituent in these languages, three tests are suggested: the if+be test, the “aboutness test” and the use of left dislocation accompanied by a resumptive pronoun.
Acknowledgments
I would like to express my deepest appreciation to the editorial team of Linguistics as well as to the two anonymous reviewers of this paper for their comments and suggestions.
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Non-canonical word order and temporal reference in Vietnamese
- Constructions are not predictable but are motivated: evidence from the Spanish completive reflexive
- Variation and change in grammatical gender marking: the case of Dutch ethnolects
- Topic affects perception of degree of foreign accent in a non-dominant language
- Role-reference associations and the explanation of argument coding splits
- Topic marking in Kusaal and selected Mabia (Gur) languages of West Africa
- Chains of influence in Himalayan grammars: Models and interrelations shaping descriptions of Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal
- From movement into action to manner of causation: changes in argument mapping in the into-causative
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Non-canonical word order and temporal reference in Vietnamese
- Constructions are not predictable but are motivated: evidence from the Spanish completive reflexive
- Variation and change in grammatical gender marking: the case of Dutch ethnolects
- Topic affects perception of degree of foreign accent in a non-dominant language
- Role-reference associations and the explanation of argument coding splits
- Topic marking in Kusaal and selected Mabia (Gur) languages of West Africa
- Chains of influence in Himalayan grammars: Models and interrelations shaping descriptions of Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal
- From movement into action to manner of causation: changes in argument mapping in the into-causative
- The nice-of-you construction and its fragments