More on in situ WH- and focus constructions in Hausa

Jaggar, Philip J.

Abstract

Hausa is conventionally analyzed as having only one strategy for both focus and wh-constructions--fronting, with special inflectional marking on the TAM. Recently, however, some new facts have emerged which demonstrate that focus can also occur IN SITU, with a general TAM (Jaggar 2001:496-98; Green & Jaggar 2003). Hausa in situ wh-questions and focus constructions are especially common with adverbial (especially locative) elements and/or nonverbal predicates and so are more restricted in their distribution than the ex situ strategies, but they represent an interesting new problem which requires extensive study of naturally occurring discourse and detailed syntactic analysis. The Hausa facts also need to be viewed in the wider comparative-historical context of the syntax of in situ focus and wh-constructions in related West Chadic languages.

Citation

Jaggar, P. J. (2006). More on in situ WH- and focus constructions in Hausa. In D. Ibriszimow, H. Tourneux, & H. E. Wolff (Eds.), Topics in Chadic linguistics II : Papers from the 2nd Biennial International Colloquium on the Chadic Languages, Prague, October 11-12,2003 (49-73). Rüdiger Köppe

• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2006
• Deposit Date: Sep 4, 2007
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 22, 2025
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 3
• Pages: 49-73
• Series Title: Chadic Linguistics
• Series Number: 3
• Series ISSN: 2625-171X
• Book Title: Topics in Chadic linguistics II : Papers from the 2nd Biennial International Colloquium on the Chadic Languages, Prague, October 11-12,2003
• ISBN: 9783896455222
• Keywords: Hausa language, Chadic language family, focus, wh-movement