Speaker: Zhen Li (LUCL)
Title: Word order, information structure and agreement in Teke (Bantu B70)
Date: Thursday 1 December
Location: Lipsius 208
Time: 16:15 – 17:30
Abstract
In this talk, I will discuss the information structure and its interactions with syntax in Teke-Kukuya, which is a Narrow Bantu language (Guthrie code B77) spoken in the Republic of Congo. I will identify a dedicated immediate-before-verb (IBV) focus position in this language and show its interpretational properties. Based on some segmental and tonal evidence, I suggest that the IBV focus construction has its historical origin in a cleft. I will also propose the syntactic derivation of this preverbal focus strategy. There is also an intriguing a-/ka- class 1 subject marking alternation which co-varies with preverbal focus and word order, and I will provide an approach to explaining this phenomenon. The data presented is based on my field work in 2019 and 2021.