Focus Strategies in Malayalam: The Syntax-Prosody Interface (with Paroma Sanyal)

Ayesha Kidwai

Jawaharlal Nehru University Paroma Sanyal

University of Hyderabad

¡  Does the syntax give instructions about topic, focus, tails, to the A-‐P and C-‐I interfaces? 1.  Yes, and these instructions are legible to the

performance systems, so that each aspect of the information is ‘performed’ by A-P and C-I (prosody, scope, binding, etc.). ▪ All and only those elements that bear a [+topic] or a [+focus] feature will be performed with distinct morphological\ phonological\prosodic and interpretive correlates

2 Prosodic Interfaces, JNU-‐2011

2.  Yes, the narrow syntax gives information structure –related and necessarily legible to the performance systems. Moreover, the existence of these instructions necessitates mechanisms of syntactic licensing of information structure features in the narrow syntax. ▪ The licensing of a [+topic]\[+focus] necessitates a syntactic mechanism of Agree and\or Internal Merge (i.e. displacement) to a Top/Foc head in the derivation, (e.g., all of current syntactic research.)


3.  Sometimes – only some instructions are validated in the narrow syntax and have distinct performance system correlates. Elsewhere, the performance systems are the locus of licensing information structure properties. ▪ Only some [+topic]\[+focus] features are syntactically licensed and have distinct morphological\ phonological\ prosodic and interpretive correlates from those licensed in the internal systems


LEX [[CASE], [AGR] [TNS] [TOP]

[FOC]…]

NS licensing

SPELLOUT

PF-‐realization of N

S features

LEX [….[FOC]1, [ [FOC]2…]

NS licensing

[FOC]1

SPELLOUT PF-‐realization of [FO

C]1 assignm

ent of [FO

C]2


¡  Two strategies ¡  A cleft construction Mary-‐(y)e aaNә ñaan kaND-‐atә mary-‐ACC COPULA I saw-‐ NOMIN. ‘It is Mary that I saw.

¡  A preverbal focus position ñaan Mary-‐(y)e kaNDu I Mary-‐ACC saw. ‘I saw Mary.


¡  Malayalam cleft foci receive an exhaustive identification focus interpretation at the interface, whereas preverbal foci only receive an informational focus interpretation (Kiss 1998). §  An identificational focus represents a subset of the set of

contextually or situationally given elements for which the predicate phrase can potentially hold; it is identified as the exhaustive subset of this set for which the predicate phrase actually holds.

§  If a sentence part conveys new, nonpresupposed information marked by one or more pitch accents – without expressing exhaustive idenfication …-‐-‐ it is not an identificational focus but a mere information fous information focus is not associated with movement. An information focus is present in every sentence, but not every sentence contains an identificational focus.


¡  To explore the BIG picture through the BIG issues in Malayalam focus §  To determine the prosodic properties of Malayalam cleft and preverbal focus constructions

§  To explain why Malayalam speakers prefer to cleft rather than preverbal focus question words even in simplex clauses.


¡  Data §  Question and answer pairs §  Context given-‐ sentences elicited

¡  Recording and analysis §  PRAAT

¡  Prosodic correlate §  Pitch

¡  2 subjects for recording (multiple iterations) ¡  3 subjects for perception test


Rama water drank Rama drank water


I he-‐acc book gave I gave the book to him.


book I he-‐acc gave I gave the book to him.


Gave I he-‐acc book I gave the book to him.


It is rama water drank-‐D it is rama that drank water


It is water rama drank-‐D It is water that rama drank


water drank-‐D it is rama It is Rama who drank the water


Rama drank-‐D it is water It is water that Rama drank.


Prosodic Interfaces, JNU-‐2011 23


Water-‐cleft

Water – I Focus

Water-‐drank I Focus

§  John [bill mary-‐e kandu enne] parrannu §  John bill mary-‐acc saw C said §  John said that Bill saw Mary.

¡  Raising §  [bill mary-‐e kandu enne]i-‐anu John ti parrann-‐ate §  bill mary-‐acc saw C cleft John said-‐D §  John said it is that Bill saw Mary.

¡  Scrambling §  [mary-‐e bill * kandu enne]i-‐anu John ti parrann-‐ate §  mary-‐acc bill saw C cleft John said-‐D §  John said it is that Bill saw Mary.



bill mary-‐e kandu enne john parranu -‐anu

bill mary-‐e kandu enn-‐anu john parranu

¡  Left edge §  invariably has LH pitch pattern §  has pragmatic salience §  has a presupposition interpretation §  However §  it can also encode new information focus

¡  Right edge §  has falling L tone in declaratives §  marks illocutionary force


¡  Information Focus §  is not restricted to preverbal position §  can be in any position §  marked phonologically

¡  Cleft Focus §  syntactic raising to focus position §  marked syntactically §  pitch compression in PF


¡  Why do Malayalam speakers prefer to cleft? ¡  Perhaps, focusis achieved with minimal articulatory effort.


Focus Strategies in Malayalam: The Syntax-Prosody Interface (with Paroma Sanyal)

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