jeff_l
(Jeff_L)
#1
12.2 Focalization 647
12.2.4 Focalization of adverbial NP
Focalization of a spatial adverbial is illustrated in (751). Adverbials are treated
like (covert) comitative phrases, so cliticized Comitative preposition -\d
appears after Foe ά. As in other spatiotemporals, -\d is omitted in the presence
of any other clitic (751.c).
(751) a. d-i-hd-dasr [a-\d n-9SS3Yael]
here [Foc-\Comit 1 PIS-work. PerfP]
'It was here [focus] that we worked.'
b. snd-ssel [a-\d 0-aemmu-t]
yesterday [Foc-\Comit 3MaSgS-die.PerfP-Aug]
'It was yesterday [focus] that he died.' [R]
c. snd-ssel [a-\tt anhaey-aer]
yesterday [Foc-\3MaSgO see.PerfP-lSgS]
'It was yesterday [focus] that I saw it.'
It is important to distinguish a-\d (Focus morpheme a plus cliticized
Comitative d) from clause-initial Future particle ad. This can be tricky,
except in negatives, since Future ad reduces to a- before a clitic. In
otherwords, both a-\d (Focus and cliticized Comit) and ad (Future) appear as
[ad] without a further clitic, and as [a] in the presence of a further clitic. If the
following verb phrase contains a preverbal particle, or an inflected verb in a
stem other than Shlmpf or LoImpfP, the initial element must be interpreted as
a-\d rather than as Future ad. If the following verb phrase lacks preverbal
particles and has a Shlmpf or LoImpfP verb, the initial element is ambiguous
and must be interpreted in context.
12.2.5 Focalization of verb or VP
Verb (or VP) focalization occurs, for example, in response to questions of the
'what are you doing?' type. This corresponds to "verb clefting" in the syntax
literature. The verb (or VP) is converted into a VblN, is treated as the object of
-vji> 'do, make', and is then fronted like an ordinary focalized direct object. In
effect, -vju- takes the place of the verb in the original location. Focus
morpheme ά is usually present, but it is omitted in (752). Note that here the
complement ('suffering') remains in its original position, rather than following
the lexical verb into clause-initial focalized position. The complement cannot
be fronted along with the VblN unless it is expressed as a possessor NP, and
while this is grammatical, the construction in (752) with the complement
following -vju- is far more idiomatic and is common in texts. However, the
entire core VP, here 'see suffering', is logically focalized.
