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association between contrastive focus and topicality: Contrastive focus Topic.
12.2.4 Assertion scope and contrastive focus: Negation and yes/no-questions
If an optional element is mentioned in a clause, it must be itself the focus of
the asserted information (Govón 2001b:230).
a) Negation and focus attraction
"In the case of affirmative declarative clauses, the inference is normative and
probabilistic. In the case of negative clauses, it becomes obligatory
('grammaticalized') to all intent and purpose" (Givón, 2001b:231). Bhojpuri has such
usage, as shown in (49).
(49) धनपत कुा के ना मुअइलख ।
d ̤ ʌnpʌt kuttɑ ke nɑ muʌilʌkʰ
d ̤ ʌnpʌt kuttɑ ke nɑ mu -ɑ-il-ʌkʰ
Dhanpat dog ACC NEG die-CAUS-PP-3.PST
'Dhanpat didn't kill the dog.' (06.046)
The negative clause in (49), there is no optional constituent and when uttered
without contrastive stress, the inference is that the event 'killing a dog' did not happen.
Hence, the entire verb phrase is under the scope of negation. But immediately after
insertion of an optional constituent, on the other hand, the normative inference
changes radically and the scope of negated assertion narrows down excluding
everything except the optional constituent, as shown in (50a-d):
(50) a. धनपत कुा के जानबूझके ना मुअइलख ।
d ̤ ʌnpʌt kuttɑ ke jɑnbuȷ ̈ ke nɑ muʌilʌkʰ
d ̤ ʌnpʌt kuttɑ ke jɑn-buȷ ̈ -ke nɑ mu -ɑ-il-ʌkʰ
Dhanpat dog ACC know-understand-SEQ NEG die-CAUS-PP-3.PST
'Dhanpat didn't kill the dog knowingly.' (06.047)
b. धनपत कुा के शुक के ना मुअइलख ।
d ̤ ʌnpʌt kuttɑ ke suk ke nɑ muʌilʌkʰ
d ̤ ʌnpʌt kuttɑ ke suk ke nɑ mu -ɑ-il-ʌkʰ
Dhanpat dog ACC Friday DAT NEG die-CAUS-PP-3.PST
'Dhanpat didn't kill the dog on Friday.' (06.048)
c. धनपत कुा के खीसे ना मुअइलख ।
d ̤ ʌnpʌt kuttɑ ke kʰise nɑ muʌilʌkʰ
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