FOCUSING VERSUS TOPICALISATION IN GHÒTÙỌ̀
Authors: Deborah Omolara Olaitan
Publication Details
Published: July 28, 2026
Reference: Volume 9, Issue 2
Abstract
Language is not static; it changes continually through the ways speakers form, use, and restructure words. This work investigates the syntactic operation of focusing versus topicalisation in Ghòtùọ̀
Focusing is a syntactic process that places communicative prominence on different constituents of the sentence. Like many other African languages, the Edoid group of language is distinguished by the prevalence of focusing as strategy for determining information structure.
The work employs Chomsky’s Minimalist Program as framework. Ethnographic design was used. Data collected were subjected to inter-linear glossing, syntactic and qualitative analysis. Ghòtùọ̀ has only one optional focus marker ‘ọ́nhi’, whose overt realisation contrasts the focused item from other constituent in the construction. Focusable and non-focusable constituents are identified with binary values [+ or -] emphasis and focus features. Constituents with [+emphasis] and [+focus] can be processed and preposed from non-focus to focus-licensing positions. Focus derivation involves two probes: emphasis and focus. A focused constituent is preposed clause initially to the specifier of Emphasis Phrase to check [+emphasis] licensing ForceP domain, and further moves to the specifier of Focus Phrase to check focus. Topic constructions involve ‘given information’and ‘comment’. In Topic-Focus interaction, topic’s comment changes to focus ‘background information’; topic is projected higher than focus. In Ghòtùọ̀, focusing plays a significant role in the understanding of speaker’s coding of constituents as new or given information in the ForceP. Decoding discourse information hinges more on the constituents’ information structural properties.
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How to Cite
Deborah Omolara Olaitan. (2026). FOCUSING VERSUS TOPICALISATION IN GHÒTÙỌ̀. ABIA JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES , Volume 9 (2) .