The role of tone in Rere topic and focus constructions

Tonal correlates of topic and focus constructions in African tone languages are often indirect, manifested as restrictions on tone spreading or tone marking on non-focused or non-topic elements. Rere (Koalib) is a Kordofanian language of Sudan that exhibits both of these characteristics. In this talk, I will show how high tone indexes topic and focus of nominals in Rere by marking the verb. In addition, topic determines the grammatical role of pronominal enclitics attached to the verb, indicated by tonal case marking. Two patterns of progressive high tone spreading occur within the verbal complex, bounded and unbounded. These patterns interact with other high tones in different ways. High tone that marks case and topic blocks unbounded spreading and favors bounded. Conversely, high tone that marks aspect-mood-deixis favors unbounded spreading and prevents bounded spreading.

 

Sharon Rose is a Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of California, San Diego. Her research is in phonology, investigated through in-depth fieldwork on African languages. Her main topics of interest are long-distance harmony and tone. Recent projects investigate the prosody of topic and focus, and musical pitch perception by speakers of African tone languages. She has worked primarily on Semitic languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea and on Kordofanian languages of Sudan.