LINGUIST List 29.4316
Mon Nov 05 2018
Diss: Zapotec, Isthmus; Language Documentation; Pragmatics: Juan José Bueno Holle: ''Information structure in Isthmus Zapotec''
Editor for this issue: Sarah Robinson <srobinsonlinguistlist.org>
Date: 02-Nov-2018
From: Juan Bueno Holle <jotajotabueno
gmail.com>
Subject: Information structure in Isthmus Zapotec
E-mail this message to a friend Institution: University of Chicago
Program: Department of Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2016
Author: Juan José Bueno Holle
Dissertation Title: Information structure in Isthmus Zapotec
Linguistic Field(s): Language Documentation
Pragmatics
Subject Language(s):
Zapotec, Isthmus (zai) Dissertation Director:
Lenore Grenoble
Dissertation Abstract:
This dissertation is concerned with the linguistic documentation, description and analysis of naturally-occurring discourse in Isthmus Zapotec (ISO 639 code: ZAI), a Central Zapotec language of the Otomanguean stock. I draw on a corpus I collected through 17 months of fieldwork as well as on existing documentation to present a study of information structure: the ways that the different components of sentences - constituent order, intonation, morphology, and syntax - are organized by ZAI speakers in order to communicate certain kinds of information.
I first review the main typological characteristics of the language, including, the tone system, the structural function of prosody, and constituent order, and show that the most common arrangement of constituents in ZAI is verb followed by subject then object. Verb-initial syntax, however, is often violated as the preverbal position can be the locus for important discourse functions. I show that the pre-verbal position interacts closely with grammatical role and pragmatic status of nominals in the expression of topic and focus relations. Through the close examination of the form, function, and distribution of ZAI nominals, I analyze the different nominal forms used to introduce and track referents and to mark referents as more or less accessible. I focus specifically on the distribution and alternation of two types of third person pronominal forms, the zero form and the overt subject enclitic form, in spontaneous narrative and conversation, and conclude that an important factor governing their use is the relative thematic salience of the referents: the overt pronoun is used for more thematic figures and the zero form for less thematic figures. I then build on the discussion of nominal forms to address topic and focus relations. I find that while sentence focus and predicate focus constructions are consistently verb-initial, argument focus constructions may contain either pre-verbal constituents (within the clause) or, alternatively, may be verb-initial. No evidence is found for pitch accents directly associated with focal material.
I extend the analysis of topic and focus relations by examining data from narrative and conversational contexts where ZAI speakers employ topic and focus constructions for specific interactional purposes. I focus specifically on a multifunctional discourse particle, LA, and show that it is used in topic-promoting contexts, as well as to mark “scene-setting topics” that have a frame-setting or delimiting function, to indicate changes in topics or boundaries of topical units, and for contrastive topics. I argue further that LA-marked constructions should be viewed not only as a resource for marking various types of topical information, but more generally as a resource for organizing talk and interaction. I also discuss a conversational strategy in which ZAI speakers use predicate focus and argument focus successively. The combined use of predicate focus and argument focus is analyzed as a chiastic structure in which the speaker binds two intonation units into a couplet to be interpreted together. One effect of this use is to extend his/her speaking turn for an additional intonation unit, with the second part, the argument focus construction, marking the end of the speaker’s turn, ceding the floor. Overall, the analysis presented demonstrates the value and need for information structure studies to document and analyze spontaneous and naturally-occurring discourse, particularly in understudied languages.
Page Updated: 05-Nov-2018