Information Structure in Swahili: A Formal Analysis of Focus Marking in Cleft Constructions

Abstract

Cleft constructions are widely used across languages to encode focus in an utterance. The constructions act as the main and central mechanism of marking focus in many languages. The study done in many languages, including Bantu and non-Bantu, noticed macro variation in how clefts behave, particularly regarding focus positions, types of focus expressed, and the pivot elements that anchor the construction. However, in the case of Kiswahili, there remains a lack of comprehensive studies that systematically explain how cleft constructions function in marking focus within discourse. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze the focus marking in cleft constructions in Kiswahili basing on focus position, types of focus marked, focus-bearing constituents, and status of copula in Swahili cleft constructions. Data was collected from contextualized spoken language, which underscores the presence of information structure. The study used Magufuli’s tribute ceremony held in Mwanza on 24 March 2021 as a source of the data. Two incidents were narrated by two informants selected using snowball sampling. Through the narration, Swahili cleft constructions were drawn for data analysis, which was anchored within Information Structure Theory by Lambrecht (1994). The results reveal two focus-bearing constituents in Kiswahili: noun phrase and infinitive clause. These constituents are central or pivotal for expressing focus. In all cases, focus is signaled by a copula element which acts as a focus marker and as a syntactic partitioning device. The study also identifies notable variation in focus positioning across different cleft types. In basic and pseudo clefts, the focused constituents appear immediately after the copula, while in inverted pseudo cleft appear before the copula. Furthermore, three distinct types of focus associated with specific cleft structures in Swahili were noted in this study: contrastive focus in basic cleft, exhaustive focus in pseudo cleft, and emphatic focus in inverted pseudo cleft. The findings indicate that cleft construction is a productive and nuanced system for marking focus in the language.