Information Structure

PROJECT OVERVIEW AND OUTCOMES

Deixis (or ‘pointing’) can be understood as a procedure that focuses the joint attention of speech participants on an entity which is present in either the speech setting, memory or conversational or written discourse. Leaving gestural deixis such as literal pointing, nodding or gaze aside, this property is shared by accented pronouns and demonstratives, with the latter often providing the source for the development of accented pronouns. When the attention is already focused on an entity, accented pronouns often indicate Contrastive Topic or Focus.

In order to describe and explain the functioning of the Hittite demonstratives and accented pronouns, I have constructed a model that combines cognitive-functional and typological approaches regarding (a) referent tracking on discourse level, (b) the anaphoric (= textual) and deictic (= situational) use of demonstratives, and (c) the use of accented pronouns in Topic and Focus on sentence level. The application of this model led to an improved description of the demonstratives kā- “this”, apā- “that” and aši “yonder” and the accented pronoun apā- (which is the same as the demonstrative but with completely different semantics and use). This project resulted in the following outcomes:

(1) As a third person pronoun, apā- expresses emphasis. A detailed analysis showed among other things that apā- in preverbal position marks a referent as the Contrastive Focus of its clause (in “the dog (not the cat) chased the horse”, dog is in Contrastive Focus). Non-contrastive focal apā- on the other hand, always occurs in initial position. These results were unexpected because the Hittitological literature from the ’90-ies and early 2000-s only focused on initial position as the locus for contrast and emphasis.

(2) Research on noun phrases with adjectival apā- showed that they are often a topical element in the Focus domain of the clause and only rarely the only element in Focus.

(3) It was always assumed that Hittite question words typically occur in clause-initial position. Applying the model developed for my book project made clear that different types of Question Focus correlated with different positions of the question word in the clause, similar to the placement rules for stressed apā-. In other words, Hittite question words can occur anywhere in the clause, depending on the communicative intent of the speaker.

OUTPUT

Monograph

The Hittite Demonstratives. Studies in Deixis, Topics and Focus. (Studien zu den Boghazköy-Texten 55). Harrassowitz: Wiesbaden 2014, 610 pp. [also see the Demonstratives Project]

Articles

  1. ‘The original function of the Hittite sentence particle –kan: topic reinforcer or marker of spatial relations?’ Review article of Jacqueline Boley, Dynamics of Transformation in Hittite. The Hittite Particles -kan, -asta and -san. (Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft 97), Innsbruck 2000. Bibliotheca Orientalis 64/1-2 (2007), 31-63
  2. ‘Focus Structure and Q-word Questions in Hittite.’ In Evelien Keizer and Miriam van Staden (eds.), Interpersonal grammar: a cross-linguistic perspective. Thematic issue of Linguistics 47/4 (2009), 945-967
  3. [keynote article] ‘Focus in Hittite and the stressed pronoun apā-: in search of a method.’ In Elisabeth Rieken and Paul Widmer (eds.), Pragmatische Kategorien. Form, Funktion und Diachronie. Akten der Arbeitstagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft 24.–26. September 2007, in Marburg. Wiesbaden: Reichert 2009, 93-112
  4. ‘Hittite Noun Phrases in Focus’. In Stephanie W. Jamison, H. Craig Melchert, and Brent Vine (eds.), Proceedings of the 24th Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference. Bremen: Hempen 2013, 27-45
  5. Old Hittite kuid⸗a ‘but as for’, introducing contrastive topics in left-dislocation’. In: Petra Goedegebuure and Theo van den Hout (eds.), Acts of the 10th International Congress of Hittitology 2017 [also see the Expressing Agency Project]

Talks

  1. Emfase in the Karatepe-bilingue (Fenicisch-Luwisch) (Emphasis in the Karatepe bilingual (Phoenician-Luwian)). October 16, 1998, Institute for Mediterranean Studies, Amsterdam
  2. The interpersonal level in Hittite, February 13, 2004, Functional Discourse Grammar Colloquium, University of Amsterdam
  3. Keynote lecture: Linguistics and long-extinct languages: a case study of Focus in Hittite. September 24, 2007. Pragmatische Kategorien. Form, Funktion und Diachronie. Arbeitstagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft, Marburg, 24.-26. September 2007
  4. The pragmatic function Focus in Hittite. April 16, 2010, Workshop Linguistic Method and Theory and the Languages of the Ancient Near East, Oriental Institute, Chicago
  5. Finding focus in Hittite: the discourse-pragmatic function of stressed pronouns, May 19, 2012, East Coast Indo-European Conference, Berkeley
  6. Hittite Noun Phrases in Focus. October 26, 2012, West Coast Indo-European Conference, Los Angeles
  7. Left-Dislocation in Old Hittite. August 31, 2017, 10th International Congress of Hittitology, Chicago [also see the Expressing Agency Project]
  8. Digging for data: a formal-semantic and propositional logical approach to Focus in Hittite. June 25, 2022, 41st East Coast Indo-European Conference June 23-26, 2022, Harvard University, Boston.
  9. Hittite Elliptic Genitives. Special Panel: New Linguistic Approaches to Texts in Ancient Indo-European Languages. March 22, 2024, 234th Annual meeting of the American Oriental Society, Chicago
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