(^90) ROBERT D. VAN VALIN, JR.
A: Viktora zasciscajet Maksim-0.^51
TOPIC Focus
Victor- defends Maxim-NOM
"MAXIM defends Victor."
b. Q: Kogo zasciscajet Maksim-01
Focus TOPIC
who(Acc) defends Maxim-NOM
"Who(m) does Maxim defend?"
A: Maksim-0 zasciscajet Viktor-a.
TOPIC Focus
Maxim-NOM defends Victor-
"Maxim defends VIKTOR."
c. Spi: Maksim-0 ubivajet Aleksej-a
TOPIC Focus
Maxim-NOM kills Alexei-Acc
"Maxim KILLS ALEXEI."
Sp2: A Viktor-al
Focus
and Victor-Acc
"And VIKTOR?" [i.e. "What is happening to Victor?"]
Spi: Viktor-α Maksim-0 zasciscajet.
TOPIC Focus
Victor-Acc Maxim-NOM defends
"Maxim DEFENDS Victor."
WH-questions and their answers are narrow focus constructions, and this is
the case in (78a,b). Speaker l's first utterance in (78c) is a predicate focus
construction, while Speaker 2's question and l's response are both narrow
focus constructions. In all of the declarative utterances, topic precedes
focus.^52
The actual choice of focus construction in an utterance is a function of
the communicative situation, and the discourse status of lexical items as
topical or focal is likewise a result of the actual speech situation. The role of
the grammar here is to capture how the morphosyntactic realization of
arguments and their predicate is affected by the different focus construction
possibilities. These effects vary significantly from language to language, as
noted in sections 2.3, 2.4, but in every language they play some role in the
singke
(singke)
#1