TY  - JOUR
AB  - It has been argued that the use of inverse voice in languages with pragmatic inversion depends on the discourse status of the referents: this voice occurs when the patient outranks the agent in topicality. In our article, we present empirical evidence from Teribe, a Chibchan language of Panama and Costa Rica and we examine the interaction between inverse voice and information structure. We report the results of three production experiments which show that there is a strong correlation but not a categorical association between inverse voice and particular information structural properties. On this empirical basis, we claim that the occurrence of inverse voice in discourse may be accounted for in terms of discourse-oriented preferences concerning the linear order and does not require the assumption that discrete pragmatic properties such as topic or focus are inherent part of the construction at issue.
DA  - 2010
DO  - 10.1016/j.pragma.2010.02.004
KW  - production experiments
KW  - focus
KW  - topic
KW  - Teribe
KW  - inverse voice
LA  - eng
IS  - 9
M2  - 2579
PY  - 2010
SN  - 0378-2166
SP  - 2579-2600
T2  - Journal of Pragmatics
TI  - The discourse function of inverse voice: An experimental study in Teribe (Chibchan)
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0070-pub-20950299
Y2  - 2024-11-21T21:53:10
ER  -