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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Linguistics

University of North Dakota

Theses and Dissertations

2020

Lambrecht

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Information Structure In Soumraye (Somrai), An Eastern Chadic Language, Emily Ruthann Miller Aug 2020

Information Structure In Soumraye (Somrai), An Eastern Chadic Language, Emily Ruthann Miller

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the information structure of Soumraye, also known as Somrai (common alternative spelling: Soumray; ISO: SOR; autonym: Chibne, Chibné or Shibne), a largely unstudied Eastern Chadic (Afro-Asiatic) language of Central Chad (Eberhard et al. 2020). Analysis is based on four fiction and two non-fiction narratives as well as part of an expository text and some previously published proverbs. I primarily use a framework from Lambrecht (1994). The default information structure of Soumraye is topic-comment or presupposition-focus. The construction for marked topic, or topicalization, consists of a preposed noun phrase ending with the topicalization particle da. Da's …