TC: Contrastive Focus

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roninbodhisattva
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TC: Contrastive Focus

Post by roninbodhisattva »

How does your language do the following?

(1) John didn't hit Mary, David did
(2) John didn't hit Mary, he kissed her
(3) John didn't hit Mary, he hit Susan

Feel free to substitute appropriate names / NPs for your language.
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Re: TC: Contrastive Focus

Post by Ahzoh »

Jona kytysam nĕd Mĕrii, žar ĕs Davýd vykra tysĕ Mĕrii.
John did not hit Mary, it was David who had hit Mary.

Jona kytysam nĕd Mĕrii, ĕr čycam šĕr.
John did not hit Mary, he kissed her.

Jona kytysam nĕd Mĕrii, ĕr tysĕ Súzan.
John did not hit Mary, he had hit Suzan.
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CatDoom
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Re: TC: Contrastive Focus

Post by CatDoom »

Yipta:

Quwwop Yan Moly, wop Tapat Moly. [qowhɔp jæn mɔlj wɔp tæpæt mɔlj]
NEG-hit\TR John\NOM Mary\OBL hit\TR David\NOM Mary\OBL
"John doesn't hit Mary, David hits mary."

Quwwop Yan Moly, low so. [qowhɔp jæn mɔlj lɔw sɔ]
NEG-hit\TR John\NOM Mary\OBL kiss\TR 3\OBL
"John doesn't hit Mary, (he) kisses her."

Quwwop Yan Moly, wop Soson. [qowhɔp jæn mɔlj wɔp sɔsɔn]
NEG-hit\TR John\NOM Mary\OBL hit\TR Susan\OBL
"John doesn't hit Mary, (he) hits Susan."

Yipta doesn't mark tense, although there are constructions for describing a specific time at which an event took place.

I must admit that I have fun Yipta-fying English names; this was especially amusing because I have a brother named David and my mother's name is Susan.

Edit: Added detailed glosses.
Last edited by CatDoom on 22 Oct 2013 21:05, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: TC: Contrastive Focus

Post by MrKrov »

You need to add proper glosses.
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Re: TC: Contrastive Focus

Post by ol bofosh »

:con: Alahithian

Ol jon gakurkel ol mari - (pa rat) ol david oñ gakurk.
/oɭ ɖʂon ga.ˈkuɾ.kel oɭ ˈma.ɾi | (pa ɾat) oɭ ˈda.vid oŋ ˈga.kurt/
ol jon gakur-k-el ol mari; (pa rat) ol david oñ gakur-k
PR John hit-PST-NEG PR Mary (CONJ next.to) PR David 3s hit-PST

John didn't hit Mary, (but) David did.

Ol jon gakurkel ol mari - (pa rat) oñoñ mewk.
/oɭ ɖʂon ga.ˈkuɾ.kel oɭ ˈma.ɾi | (pa ɾat) ˈoŋ.on mewk/
ol jon gakur-k-el ol mari - (pa rat) oñ-oñ mew-k
PR John hit-PST-NEG PR Mary (CONJ next.to) 3S-3S kiss-PST

John didn't hit Mary, (but) he kissed her

Ol jon gakurkel ol meri - (pa rat) oñ gakurk ol susan.
/oɭ ɖʂon ga.ˈkuɾ.kel oɭ ˈme.ɾi | (pa ɾat) oŋ ˈga.kurk oɭ ˈsu.san/
ol jon gakur-k-el ol meri - (pa rat) oñ gakur-k PR Susan
PR John hit-PST-NEG PR Mary (CONJ next.to) 3s hit-PRS PR Susan

John didn't hit Mary, he hit Susan
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Re: TC: Contrastive Focus

Post by basilius »

roninbodhisattva: negation complicates things a lot, since scope of negation != focus of assertion/contrastivity.

Cf.:

(A) It wasn't John who hit Mary. (David did.)
(B) It was John who didn't hit Mary. (He missed or spared her; perhaps, unlike David.)

John is within the focus domain in both examples, but what is negated is John's identity with the hitter (thus, part of focus) in (A) but the backgrounded or topicalized action of (successful) hitting in (B).

Both (A) and (B) are potential paraphrases to (two different readings of) John didn't hit Mary.

In fact, there are two similarly different readings to your example (1), with different intonation/phrasal stress:

(A') ↗John ↘didn't hit Mary; ↘David did. (or: ...↗David ↘did.)
(B') ↘John didn't hit Mary; ↗David ↘did.

More on-topic: will add some examples in my language(s) later...
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Re: TC: Contrastive Focus

Post by basilius »

I wrote:More on-topic: will add some examples in my language(s) later...
So...

The syntax of Tetlo (a T2 language of Akana, not properly uploaded yet) is highly sensitive to contrast and information structure (as separate factors); besides, negation does not stick to the finite verb, but instead to the component which is actually negated.

Tetlo features a variety of Austronesian alignment where the dependent which is in narrow focus must fill in the privileged position of "trigger", while the prototypical role of the argument promoted to "trigger" is coded by selecting the voice of the verb, as in examples (1)/(1') below (active) and (3)/(3') (antipassive). A clause is permitted to be triggerless only when the verb itself is in narrow focus (and then alignment is essentially ergative). The default candidate for the trigger position is the prototypical absolutive argument.

Thus, taken out of context, 'The man wounded the woman' is all-new (i. e. all belongs to focus domain, so there is no narrow focus consisting of verb alone), and 'woman' as the prototypical absolutive argument must be promoted to trigger:

(0) Vojqii quakbektuo luosjetuo-tuoz.

Code: Select all

vo-j-Qi-Qi           QWEk(W)-be-k-tuo luos-je-tuo       =tuo-z.
man(M)-OBL-ART.M-ERG wound-PFV-PTCP-F woman(F)-OBL-ART.F 3F-be
'The man wounded the woman.'

(The trigger is construed essentially as a nominal predicate, while the lexical verb takes the form of "predicative participle" in appropriate voice, in this example active, agreeing with the trigger in gender and number but not person.)

The same construction is used with negation - *if* the negation is part of the presupposition, e. g. in confirming the content of a previous negative statement; the negation is put before the lexical verb (predicative participle):

(0') Vojqii kaj quakbektuo luosjetuo-tuoz.

Code: Select all

vo-j-Qi-Qi           kaj QWEk(W)-be-k-tuo luos-je-tuo       =tuo-z.
man(M)-OBL-ART.M-ERG not wound-PFV-PTCP-F woman(F)-OBL-ART.F 3F-be
'The man didn't wound the woman.'
(≈ 'Indeed, the man didn't wound the woman.')

However, more often negation is used to deny a presupposition, e. g. contained in a previous statement. Then the negated component becomes contrastive, and if it is a dependent, it is promoted to the trigger position. On the other hand, a dependent can be made the contrastive part of rheme (= narrow focus) also when the negation belongs to the presupposition. Therefore, putting aside the potential variants differing in contrastivity of the components in topic=theme domain (which type of contrast may also affect the syntax in Tetlo), we have at least five possible translations for 'The man didn't wound the woman', differing in which component is in narrow focus and whether or not the negation also belongs to the focus=rheme domain. (I sort these translations into groups parallel to roninbodhisattva's English examples.)

(1) Luosjetuoj-ko kaj quakbeditkei vojqi-iz.

Code: Select all

luos-je-tuo-j          =ko  kaj QWEk(W)-be-dit-ke-Qi   vo-j-Qi         =Qi-z.
woman(F)-OBL-ART.F-OBL "KO" not wound-PFV-ANTIP-PTCP-M man(M)-OBL-ART.M 3M-be
The man didn't wound the woman.'
(≈ 'It was the man who didn't wound the woman.')

Here, 'the man' is promoted to trigger, and since its prototypical role is ergative rather than absolutive, the predicative participle is marked for the antipassive voice ("ANTIP"). 'The woman', demoted by the voice transformation from its absolutive position, is reintroduced by the postposition -ko (roughly translatable as 'with respect to').

(1') Luosjetuoj-ko quakbeditkei vojqi kaj-iz.

Code: Select all

luos-je-tuo-j          =ko  QWEk(W)-be-dit-ke-Qi   vo-j-Qi          kaj =Qi-z.
woman(F)-OBL-ART.F-OBL "KO" wound-PFV-ANTIP-PTCP-M man(M)-OBL-ART.M not  3M-be
The man didn't wound the woman.'
(≈ 'It wasn't the man who wounded the woman.')

This example differs from (1) only in the placement of the negation kaj 'not'.

(2) Vojqii luosjetuo kaj tykbe.

Code: Select all

vo-j-Qi-Qi           luos-je-tuo        kaj tuo-(QWE)k(W)-be
man(M)-OBL-ART.M-ERG woman(F)-OBL-ART.F not 3F-wound-PFV
The man didn't wound the woman.'
(≈ 'The man failed to wound the woman' or 'What the man did to the woman wasn't wound her'.)

Here the verb itself (with negation) forms the narrow focus, and none of its dependents belongs to focus=rheme domain. The construction is prototypical ergative, triggerless, with lexical verb put in finite form agreeing in person-gender-number with the absolutive argument, and placed clause-finally.

(3) Vojqii kaj quakbektuo luosjetuo-tuoz.

Code: Select all

vo-j-Qi-Qi           kaj QWEk(W)-be-k-tuo luos-je-tuo       =tuo-z.
man(M)-OBL-ART.M-ERG not wound-PFV-PTCP-F woman(F)-OBL-ART.F 3F-be
The man didn't wound the woman.'
(≈ 'It was the woman whom the man didn't wound.')

Construed essentially like (1), but the voice remains active, so 'the man' retains its prototypical ergative case; the result is near-identical with (0), differing only in intonation/phrasal accent.

(3') Vojqii quakbektuo luosjetuo kaj-tuoz.

Code: Select all

vo-j-Qi-Qi           QWEk(W)-be-k-tuo luos-je-tuo        kaj =tuo-z.
man(M)-OBL-ART.M-ERG wound-PFV-PTCP-F woman(F)-OBL-ART.F not 3F-be
The man didn't wound the woman.'
(≈ 'It wasn't the woman whom the man wounded.')

Like with (1) vs. (1'), this example differs only in the position of the negative particle.

In fact, there are some more options differing in negation scope within the presupposition - like 'It was the man who wounded someone other than the woman' and the like.

roninbodhisattva: are you interested in natlang examples as well? I can comment on Russian, and I'd be interested myself in how your examples are treated in e. g. German or Finnish (or in fact any other natlangs that do something curious with the factors in question).
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Re: TC: Contrastive Focus

Post by DanH34 »

:eng:
1) John didn't hit Mary, David did.
2) John didn't hit Mary, he kissed her.
3) John didn't hit Mary, he hit Susan.

:con: Zidhgebzhail - Elements in [square brackets] would be omitted in the vernacular. Tripartite morphosyntax allows for extensive dropping of constituents..

1) Merrefja Dzhonil gOumfanoi, [zefa] Daevydil [gOumfan/gAun].
Merr-ef-ja Dzhon-il g-Oumfa-n-oi, [z-ef-a] Daevyd-il [g-Oumfa-n]
Mary-ACC.SG-F-TOP John-ERG.SG.M-FOC PST-strike-SIMPLE-NEG, [3-ACC.SG-F-TOP] David-ERG.SG.M-FOC [PST-strike-SIMPLE]
Mary wasn't struck by John, [she was struck by] David.

2) Merrefja Dzhonil gOumfanoi-[hyn], [zefa] [zil] gEmwun-[hyn].
Merr-ef-ja Dzhon-il g-Oumfa-n-oi-[hyn], [z-ef-a] [z-il] g-Emwu-n-[hyn].
Mary-ACC.SG-F-TOP John-ERG.SG.M PST-strike-SIMPLE-NEG-[FOC], [3-ACC.SG-F-TOP] [3-ERG.SG.M-FOC] PST-kiss-SIMPLE-[FOC]
Mary wasn't struck by John, [she, by him, was] kissed.

3) Dzhonil Merrefja gOumfanoi, [zil] Souznefa [gOumfan].
Dzhon-il Merr-ef-ja g-Oumfa-n-oi, [z-il] Souzn-ef-a [g-Oumfa-n]
John-ERG.SG.M-TOP Mary-ACC.SG-F-FOC PST-strike-SIMPLE-NEG, [3-ERG.SG.M-TOP] Susan-ACC.SG-F-FOC [PST-strike-SIMPLE]
John didn't strike Mary, [he struck] Susan.
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Zidhgebzhail Orthography
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Re: TC: Contrastive Focus

Post by masako »

Kala:

tauete uahe yohano maliya mehayek
David instead.of John Mary hit-PST.NEG
(1) John didn't hit Mary, David did

yohano maliya nkapiye ehe mehayek
John Mary kiss-PST but hit-PST.NEG
(2) John didn't hit Mary, he kissed her

yohano susana uahe maliya mehaye
John Susan instead.of Mary hit-PST
(3) John didn't hit Mary, he hit Susan
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Re: TC: Contrastive Focus

Post by Andlat »

(1) Jan hwe menestíkaapan Marí, Tavit famöyan.
John NEG strike.PAST Mary, David do.PAST
(2) Jan hwe menestíkaapan Marí, hína súdelman hane.
John NEG strike.PAST Mary, 3S kiss.PAST 3S.ACC
(3) Jan hwe menestíkaapan Marí, hína menestíkaapan Súzan.
John NEG strike.PAST Mary, 3S strike.PAST Susan.
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Re: TC: Contrastive Focus

Post by Ossicone »

Nothing mindblowing here.
The word "is" (meaning "yes") can be added after the changed element to make it more obvious that is different.

Code: Select all

Umasui mri nitikum ta’i Hutraita. Hraspiri (is) nitikum.
umasu-i      mri  ni-tik-um       ta’i  hutra-ita   |  hraspir-i      (is)   ni-tik-um
umasu-DEF.A  NEG  3A.OP-give-PST  hit   hutra-DEF.P |  hraspir-DEF.A  (yes)  3A.OP-give-PST
Umasu didn't hit Hutra, Hraspir did.

Umasi mri nitikum ta’i Hutraita. Nitukum arim (is).
umasu-i      mri  ni-tik-um       ta’i  hutra-ita    |  ni-tik-um       arim  (is)
umasu-DEF.A  NEG  3A.OP-give-PST  hit   hutra-DEF.P  |  3A.OP-give-PST  kiss  (yes)
Umasu didn't hit Hutra, he kissed her.

Umasui mri nitikum ta’i Hutraita. Misanita (is) nitikum.
umasu-i      mri  ni-tik-um       ta’i  hutra-ita   |  misan-ita    (is)   ni-tik-um
umasu-DEF.A  NEG  3A.OP-give-PST  hit   hutra-DEF.P |  misan-DEF.P  (yes)  3A.OP-give-PST
Umasu didn't hit Hutra, he hit Misan.
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Re: TC: Contrastive Focus

Post by Dormouse559 »

Untitled:

Johannor ʻalla na Tawidni ʻa Marijan phvrra.
Johanno-n ʻa-la na Tawit-n ʻa Marija-n [PFV]hit.
John-DEF IND-NEG CNJ David-DEF IND Mary-DEF hit.

John didn't, but David did, hit Mary.

Johannor ʻalla Marijan phvrra na sa ʻa hvpuu.
Johanno-n ʻa-la Marija-n hit na sa ʻa hi-puu.
John-DEF IND-NEG Mary-DEF hit CNJ 3SG IND PFV-kiss.

John didn’t hit Mary, but he kissed her.

ʻAlla Marijan na ʻa Susannar Johannorohta phvrra.
ʻa-la Marija-n na ʻa Susanna-n Johanno-n-ihta phvrra.
IND-NEG Mary-DEF CNJ IND Susan-DEF John-DEF-PASS [PFV]hit.

Mary wasn't, but Susan was, hit by John.
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Re: TC: Contrastive Focus

Post by Lao Kou »

Image Géarthnuns

Íöhaps, arzhö Davíts, lé Émamsaut dvagakh.
[jøˈhaps, aɾˈʒø daˈvits, le eˈmamsɔt ˈdvagax]
John-NOM.NEG, but David-NOM, AUX.PAST Mary-ACC.NEG hit
John didn't hit Mary, David did.

Íöhaps lé Émamsaut dvagakh, arkfö (san lé) sauraut chön.
[jøˈhaps le eˈmamsaut ˈdvagax, aɾˈkfø (san le) ˈsɔɾɔt ˈtʃøn]
John-NOM.NEG AUX.PAST Mary-ACC.NEG hit, but (3SG-NOM AUX.PAST) 3SG-ACC kiss
John didn't hit Mary, he kissed her

Íöhaps lé Émamsaut, arzhö Susansat, dvagakh.
[jøˈhaps le eˈmamsaut, aɾˈʒø suˈsɑ̃sat, ˈdvagax]
John-NOM.NEG AUX.PAST Mary-ACC.NEG, but Susan-ACC, hit
John didn't hit Mary, he hit Susan
Last edited by Lao Kou on 28 Mar 2016 05:33, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: TC: Contrastive Focus

Post by masako »

Ossicone wrote:mri
Curious, here...what's the pronunciation for that? I ask because I was considering a nasalized trill for a side project...
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Re: TC: Contrastive Focus

Post by Ossicone »

It's just [ mɾi ].
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Re: TC: Contrastive Focus

Post by masako »

Ossicone wrote:It's just [ mɾi ].
Still..I like the way it sounds...not very usual/typical.
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Re: TC: Contrastive Focus

Post by Ossicone »

Yeah, that's why I like it. Especially, because Uskra has a small inventory / p t k ʔ m n s ɾ a i u / with allophonic [ ʃ x ʧ ] and (maybe [ e o ] if i get around to it).
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Re: TC: Contrastive Focus

Post by Ambrisio »

Kinuiltys:
Shirvat okopia mā Arghunys, hest Ēris.
Shirva-ACC hit-3SG.PAST NEG Arghunys-NOM, but Ēris-NOM.
Arghunys Shirvat mā okopia, hest ovīza.
Arghunys-NOM Shirva-ACC NEG hit-3SG.PAST, but kiss-3SG.PAST
Okopia Arghunys mā Shirvat, hest Espileit.
hit-3SG.PAST Arghunys-NOM NEG Shirva-ACC, but Espilē-ACC.
...

Though the word order is completely free and it's theoretically possible to say:
Arghunys mā Shirvat, hest Espileit okopia.
or
Mā okopia, hest ovīza Arghunys Shirvat.
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Re: TC: Contrastive Focus

Post by Chagen »

:con:
Replacing the names with:

John: Bhartirom (lit. "the fighting one")
Mary: Praðas (lit. "truth")
David: Macgas (lit. "moon")
Susan: Writikų (lit. "the loved one")

Heocg doesn't use a dummy verb like English--instead it basically says "X did not hit Y, rather Z", Z being in whatever case is needed.

Bhartirom Praðau hreotayu, gis Macgas
bhartirom-NOM.SG praðas-ACC.SG hit.PST-NEG, rather macgas-NOM.SG

Heocg actually has two words for "rather"--one for nouns (used above) and one for verbs (used below)

Bhartirom Praðau hreotayu, los slob
bhartirom-NOM.SG praðas-ACC.SG hit.PST-NEG, rather kiss.PST

Bhartirom Praðau hreotayu, gis Writikuwa
bhartirom-NOM.SG praðas-ACC.SG hit.PST-NEG, rather writiku-ACC.SG
Nūdenku waga honji ma naku honyasi ne ika-ika ichamase!
female-appearance=despite boy-voice=PAT hold boy-youth=TOP very be.cute-3PL
Honyasi zō honyasi ma naidasu.
boy-youth=AGT boy-youth=PAT love.romantically-3S
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Re: TC: Contrastive Focus

Post by Bagliun Edar »

:con: Obulamga

Jando joyien Meri, Deivi yienjo.
[ˈʒandɔ ˈʒɔʎiɛn ˈmɛɾi, ˈdɛivi ˈʎiɛnʒɔ]
Jan-do jo-yien Meri, Deivi yien-jo
PR-TOP IND.POL.NEG-hit PR-[ACC], PR-[ERG] hit-IND.POL
John didn't hit Mary, David hit (her)

* There is no blank verb in Godspeech, so we must use the same verb.
* "Jando joyien Meri, Deivi" could mean either "John didn't hit Mary, David didn't hit (her [too])" or "John didn't hit Mary, John didn't hit David (too)"
* "Jando joyien Meri, Deivibal" means "John didn't hit Mary, David didn't hit (her [too])"

Jando joyien Meri, gājo.
[ˈʒandɔ ˈʒɔʎiɛn ˈmɛɾi, ˈgaːʒɔ]
Jan-do jo-yien Meri, gā-jo
PR-TOP IND.POL.NEG-hit PR-[ACC], kiss-IND.POL
John didn't hit Mary, (he) kissed (her)

Jando joyien Meri, yienjo Zuzan.
[ˈʒandɔ ˈʒɔʎiɛn ˈmɛɾi, ˈʎiɛnʒɔ ˈzuzan]
Jan-do jo-yien Meri, yien-jo Zuzan
PR-TOP IND.POL.NEG-hit PR-[ACC], hit-IND.POL PR-[ACC]
John didn't hit Mary, (he) hit Susan
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