2.9.1. Higher class adverbs
The higher class adverbs that I identified are the speech act
adverbs «m?Ì ndaì ?gam»(honestly),
«pékériì» (honestly)
and the epistemic I adverb «m?ì? mb?ì»
(maybe).
2.9.1.1. Speech act adverbs
Consider the data in (24) and (25) below:
(24) Focalization
a) m?Ì ndaì ?gam m?ìn
j?Ì maÌloÌriÌ
Honestly child ate rice
«Honestly, the child ate rice»
b) * aì m?Ì ndaì
?gam m?ìn j?Ì
maÌloÌriÌ
Cl. honestly child ate rice
Intended: «HONESTLY, the child ate rice»
c) m?ìn j?Ì maÌloÌriÌ
poì m?Ì ndaì ?gam
child ate rice Foc. Honestly
«HONESTLY, the child ate rice»
(25) Topicalization
a) m?Ì ndaì ?gam m?ìn
j?Ì maÌloÌriÌ
Honestly child ate rice
«Honestly, the child ate rice»
b) m?Ì ndaì ?gam
m?^, m?ìn j?Ì
maÌloÌriÌ
Honestly, Top child ate rice
«Honestly, the child ate rice»
The data in (24.b) shows that speech act adverbs cannot be
focalized through the use of the cleft copula «aì».
This ungrammaticality can be justified by the fact that focalization with the
cleft copula «aì» requires movement to the left
periphery. Given that speech act adverbs are base-generatedin the CP domain,
there cannot be another movement. For instance, its focalization can only be
with the focus marker «poì», as shown in (24.c)
above. As far as (25.b) is concerned, it shows that speech act adverbs can be
topicalized with the use of the topic marker «n?ì».
2.9.1.2. Epistemic I adverb
The epistemic I adverb «m?ì?
mb?ì» (maybe) can be focalized neither with
«aì» nor with «poì».
Consider the data in (26) below:
(26) Focalization
a) m?ì? mb?ì m?ìn j?Ì
maÌloÌriÌ
Maybe child ate rice
«Maybe the child ate rice»
b) *aì m?ì? mb?ì m?ìn
j?Ì maÌloÌriÌ
Cl. Maybe child ate rice
Intended: «MAYBE the child ate rice»
c) *m?ìn j?Ì
maÌloÌriÌ poì m?ì? mb?ì
child ate rice Foc. Maybe
Intended: «MAYBE the child ate rice»
As far as topicalization is concerned, the epistemic I adverb
admits the topic morpheme «n?Ì» followed by a pause,
as shown in (27) below:
(27) Topicalization
a) m?ì? mb?ì m?ìn j?Ì
maÌloÌriÌ
Maybe child ate rice
«Maybe the child ate rice»
b) m?ì? mb?ì-?Ì,
m?ìn j?Ì maÌloÌriÌ
Maybe-Top child ate rice
«Maybe, the child ate rice»
In (26.b), the epistemic I adverb is focalized through the
focus maker «poì», while in (26.c), it has been
focalized through the cleft construction. As previously said, epistemic I
adverb cannot be focalized, reason why those sentences are ungrammatical. As
for (27), it shows that epistemic I adverb can be topicalized through the topic
marker «n?Ì». The latter has lost its /n/ in order to
ease pronunciation.
In brief, the data in (24), (25), (26) and (27) above show
that higher class adverbs in Shupamem allow topicalization. In contrast, the
epistemic I adverb does not allow focalization, while the speech act adverbs
allows only focalization with «poì».
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