Verb Doubling and Focus (Feature 105)

From Apics

Feature Annotation

This features concerns the possibility of doubling the verb in order to focus on it. There are mainly two constructions: the so-called predicate cleft construction, where the verb is moved outside the matrix clause, leaving a copy within the matrix clause (ex. 1), and the reduplication of the verb within the matrix clause (ex. 2):

Example 1, Papiamentu
Lesa bo ta lesa, òf ta soña bo ta soña?
[read you PROG read or COP dream you PROG dream]
‘Are you reading or are you dreaming?’ (cf. also the Haitian example in the value annotation)

In example 1, the first occurrence of predicate cleft does not involve a highlighter, but the second one does (copula ta). In this feature, we are only interested in whether a predicate cleft exists in the language, independently of the particular constructions which are involved (e.g. copula or non-copula highlighter, relative pronoun heading the background clause or no relative pronoun).
Example 2 illustrates reduplication of the verb within the matrix clause (i.e. no clefting):

Example 2, Sango
Mbi vo vo-ngo pepe.
[I buy buy-NOM NEG]
‘I didn't buy it (because someone gave it to me).’

(The fact that in example 2 the second verb is nominalized is not important here; in predicate cleft constructions involving a copula, the verb could also be seen as nominalized (by the copula).)
If verb focus is expressed by sentences which do not move the focused verb out of the matrix clause or which do not reduplicate the verb within the matrix clause, the language gets value 3, as for instance Ternateño

Ya kaminá numá Chéri, no ya kohré.
[PFV walk just Cherry NEG PFV run]
’Cherry just walked, [she did] not run.’ (Note that Ternateño has VSO word order)

Additional remarks

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Values

Value		Value Annotation
1	Verb repeated in background clause of predicate cleft	Haitian (cleft) Se mache Bouki te mache, [FOC walk Bouki PAST walk li pa te kouri. 3SG NEG PAST run] ‘It was walking that Bouki did, not running.’
2	Verb reduplicated	Sango (no cleft) Mbi vo vo-ngo pepe. [I buy buy-NOM NEG] ‘I didn't buy it (because someone gave it to me).’
3	No verb doubling in focusing constructions	Ternateño (no cleft) Ya kaminá numá Chéri, no ya kohré. [PFV walk just Cherry NEG PFV run] ’Cherry just walked, [she did] not run.’

WALS No.

(None)