- Title
- Tarifit Berber: from VSO to topic-initial
- Creator
- El Hankari, Abdelhak
- Relation
- Brill's Journal of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics Vol. 7, Issue 2, p. 307-330
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/18776930-00702006
- Publisher
- Brill
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2015
- Description
- This paper is concerned with the word order of Tarifit Berber. It is argued that this variety has now shifted from VSO to a topic-prominent system. The topic is realised by the subject when all arguments are lexical or by VP-Topicalisation (V + object clitic) when the object is a pronominal clitic. The syntax of wh-/operator and some embedded clauses, which typically require a Verb-first structure, is also investigated. A careful consideration of these clauses reveals that the surface position of the verb is the result of V-to-C movement, which is motivated by focus. Topic and focus are investigated within the current debate as to whether discourse features are syntactic or phonological. Several pieces of evidence are presented, which suggest that these features are likely to be phonological in Tarifit. The object clitic, which is specified for topic, cannot move alone to the initial position of the clause, presumably due to its prosodic deficiency. So, it must pied-pipe the verb with it yielding VP-Topicalisation. Similarly, focus in C can only be valued by an independent phonological item. If the complementiser does not meet this condition, the main verb must move to C, giving rise to a strict VS ordering.
- Subject
- Tarifit Berber; topic; VP-topicalisation; focus; verb second
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1317258
- Identifier
- uon:23376
- Identifier
- ISSN:1876-6633
- Language
- eng
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