Hausa focus and the stabilizer

Hausa focuses a constituent by fronting it to a focus slot at the beginning of its clause, where the stabilizer may follow it: Hàdīzà cē ta ci lambā̀ 'It was Hadiza who won the prize'. The clause after a fronted focus is a Rel environment, so its TAM must be a Rel form: Audù nē ya tàfi kā̀suwā 'It is Audu who went to the market', with the preterite, against Audù yā tàfi kā̀suwā 'Audu has gone to the market', with the completive ([New00]). A focus may also stay in place, with the TAM of a general clause and no marking of any kind; the particle rarely follows it then, at the end of the clause or before an adjunct: Audù yaa sàyi zoobèe ne 'Audu bought a RING' ([HZ07a]).

The stabilizer has polar tone and no agreement feature but gender: it is cē after a feminine singular and nē after anything else, a masculine, a plural, feminine coordinations included, a prepositional phrase or a verb phrase. It can always be left out, and [HZ07a] argue that it marks not focus but exhaustivity, being excluded where a property is known to hold of more than the focus.

Main definitions

• Hausa.ne, Hausa.ce, Hausa.stabilizer — the stabilizer and its agreement
• Hausa.FocusConfig — a focused clause: its TAM, the TAM its PAC surfaces in, the PAC's subject cell, the focus strategy, and the focus's agreement features
• Hausa.FocusConfig.Licensed — a fronted focus takes a Rel counterpart of the clause's TAM, a focus in place a general TAM unchanged

Main results

• Hausa.FocusConfig.pacTAM_ne_iff — a licensed focus changes the TAM exactly when it is fronted and the TAM does not occur in Rel environments, so fronting is audible in the PAC with the completive, the continuous and the potential and nowhere else

References

• [New00]
• [HZ07a]

The stabilizer

def Hausa.ne : Particle

nē, the stabilizer after a phrase that is not feminine.

Equations

• Hausa.ne = { form := "nē", position := some Particle.Position.postHost }

def Hausa.ce : Particle

cē, the stabilizer after a feminine.

Equations

• Hausa.ce = { form := "cē", position := some Particle.Position.postHost }

def Hausa.stabilizer (g : Option Gender) : Particle

The stabilizer after a phrase of the given gender; a plural, a prepositional phrase and a verb phrase have none.

Equations

• Hausa.stabilizer g = if g = some Gender.feminine then Hausa.ce else Hausa.ne

theorem Hausa.stabilizer_eq_ce_iff (g : Option Gender) : stabilizer g = ce ↔ g = some Gender.feminine

Focus configurations

structure Hausa.FocusConfig : Type

A focused clause records its TAM as a general clause has it, the TAM its PAC surfaces in, the PAC's subject cell, the focus strategy, the gender of the focus (none for a plural), and whether the stabilizer surfaces.

• tam : TAM
• pacTAM : TAM
• cell : Agreement.Bundle
• strategy : Focus.Strategy
• focusGender : Option Gender
• hasStab : Bool

def Hausa.instReprFocusConfig.repr : FocusConfig → ℕ → Std.Format

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

@[instance_reducible]

instance Hausa.instReprFocusConfig : Repr FocusConfig

Equations

• Hausa.instReprFocusConfig = { reprPrec := Hausa.instReprFocusConfig.repr }

def Hausa.FocusConfig.Licensed (c : FocusConfig) : Prop

A fronted focus takes a Rel counterpart of the clause's TAM; a focus in place leaves a general TAM unchanged.

Equations

• c.Licensed = ((c.strategy = Focus.Strategy.inSitu → c.pacTAM = c.tam ∧ c.tam ∈ Hausa.TAM.general) ∧ (c.strategy = Focus.Strategy.exSitu → c.pacTAM ∈ c.tam.relCounterparts))

@[instance_reducible]

instance Hausa.FocusConfig.instDecidableLicensed (c : FocusConfig) : Decidable c.Licensed

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def Hausa.FocusConfig.pac (c : FocusConfig) : Option String

The surface PAC.

Equations

• c.pac = c.pacTAM.form c.cell

def Hausa.FocusConfig.stab? (c : FocusConfig) : Option Particle

The stabilizer, if it surfaces.

Equations

• c.stab? = if c.hasStab = true then some (Hausa.stabilizer c.focusGender) else none

theorem Hausa.FocusConfig.pacTAM_ne_iff {c : FocusConfig} (h : c.Licensed) : c.pacTAM ≠ c.tam ↔ c.strategy = Focus.Strategy.exSitu ∧ c.tam ∉ TAM.rel

A licensed focus changes the TAM exactly when it is fronted and the TAM does not occur in Rel environments.

def Hausa.mkInSitu (tam : TAM) (cell : Agreement.Bundle) (g : Option Gender) (hasStab : Bool := false) : FocusConfig

A focus in place, with the clause's TAM.

Equations

• Hausa.mkInSitu tam cell g hasStab = { tam := tam, pacTAM := tam, cell := cell, strategy := Focus.Strategy.inSitu, focusGender := g, hasStab := hasStab }

def Hausa.mkExSitu (tam pacTAM : TAM) (cell : Agreement.Bundle) (g : Option Gender) (hasStab : Bool := true) : FocusConfig

A fronted focus, its PAC in the TAM pacTAM.

Equations

• Hausa.mkExSitu tam pacTAM cell g hasStab = { tam := tam, pacTAM := pacTAM, cell := cell, strategy := Focus.Strategy.exSitu, focusGender := g, hasStab := hasStab }