The Interaction of prosody and syntax in Samoan focus marking

Abstract

This paper presents the first study of prosodic and syntactic focus making in Samoa, an Austronesian VSO language. It is shown that while Samoan appears to use syntax to mark focus, focus making in Samoa actually fits well within the generalisation that focus must be maximally prosodically prominent. Seven native speakers were recorded answering questions about pictures depicting simple events. The questions were designed to elicit agent of object focus, and question-under-discussion (QUD) focus or contrastive focus.....