TOPIC, FOCUS, AND WORD ORDER IN THE KISWAHILI CLAUSE

Abstract

The Kiswahili language has been classified as an SVO language. This paper
argues that the SVO word order is dependent on the occurrence of both
the subject and object overtly. When the two do not surface overtly, the
word order varies: it is V when neither surfaces and VO when only the
object does. This paper illustrates this point with data from ten oral
narratives. It shows that the Kiswahili word order cannot be established
using syntactic information only; the pragmatic principles of topics and
foci must be taken into account as well. Based on the latter, the paper
shows that the basic (commonest) word order in the Kiswahili clause is V
word order and the default (if no other is specified) word order is VO word
order. Topics and foci surface in both marked and unmarked forms. Marked
topics are represented by overt lexical NPs and overt pronouns while the
unmarked ones are represented by the incorporated pronouns. For its part,
marked focus surfaces as fronted constituents (ex situ), while the
unmarked surfaces in situ. The paper also argues that the Minimalist
Program (MP) is inadequate in terms of analysing topic and focus and
proposes a reanalysis of the MP in order for it to be able to capture topic
and focus phenomena more appropriately.