From a corpus-based to a corpus-driven definition of clefts in Kabyle (Berber): Morphosyntax and prosody

Abstract

Prosody is often conceived of as an important but surface realization of morphosyntactic constructions that are otherwise deemed complete. This paper challenges that view of prosody as a disambiguating, highlighting or scope-marking device, and provides evidence for the inclusion of prosody as a core formal means for the coding of cleft constructions in Kabyle, in interaction with morphosyntax. The demonstration is conducted through the recursive analysis of an annotated corpus of spontaneous data, and results in a precise formal definition of Kabyle clefts constructions, whose function is shown to be the marking of narrow focus.