The Manifestation of Topic and Focus in Tupi-Guarani Languages

Abstract

In this paper, we aim to identify and describe some of the topic and focus constructions found in two Tupi-Guarani languages: Asurini do Trocará and Tupinambá.1Based on Rizzi’s (1997, 2004) cartographic approach to the left periphery of the clause, we will provide positional evidence for the existence of different types of discourse categories, such as left-dislocated topics and focalized constituents in the so-called Indicative II construction. In order to enrich our work, we will also incorporate Rodrigues’ (1990) analysis of a type of Tupinambá focus which resembles the obviative system found in algonquian languages.