Options in the pragmatic structuring of Guaraní sentences

OPTIONS IN THE PRAGMATIC STRUCTURING OF GUARANI SENTENCES Robert A. Dooley Summer Institute of Linguistics The pragmatic structuring of a Guaraní sentence is realized primarily by constituent structure. The syntactic elements of a sentence are partitioned into pragmatic components which, when related syntagmatically by scope and pragmatic function, typically form a right-branching structure. In the unmarked case, the pragmatic nucleus has unmarked Topic plus Core. An expression becomes marked when (a final segment of) the nucleus is given a binary pragmatic structure, highlighted by intonation and other features , with the marked expression as the first constituent. The remaining constituent may in turn be pragmatically structured. Marked pragmatic structuring reflects specific pragmatic conditions. This analysis accounts for most occurrences of marked wordorder , the placement of the intonation center and other intonation peaks, certain free subjects (both nouns and pronouns), various particles, and other boundary phenomena. Pragmatics can be defined as the study of how and under what circumstances the context of sentences and other linguistic units contributes to their interpretation. (Here and throughout this paper, 'sentence' refers to a sentence in a particular context.) Context should be understood as including both linguistic and situational contexts, as well as that fund of background assumptions or beliefs which we may call 'world view' . In this discussion, the only important thing about context is how it is perceived by the interlocutors; hence we may think of context as the cognitive inventory of the interlocutors at the time a sentence is uttered. The definition of pragmatics given above, however, is somewhat independent of how we conceive the notion of context. Pragmatic structuring is the organization of sentences or other linguistic units in relation to context; it indicates something of how the speaker intends the context to be used in the interpretation of the sentence. This involves showing how different parts of the sentence relate to the context—and, conversely , identifying items in the context which relate most directly to the interpretation of the sentence. The fact of pragmatic structuring is a candidate for universality in human languages, although the circumstances and the means of its implementation seem to vary greatly from language to language. Indicators of pragmatic structuring can be of diverse kinds: word order, intonation, morphological markers, and the occurrence or non-occurrence of certain forms have all been found to signal pragmatic structuring (although they may have other functions, alternatively or simultaneously). Such empirical indicators can signal pragmatic structuring either directly or through the mediation of some more abstract type of sentence organization, such as constituent structure. In (Brazilian) Guaraní, pragmatic structuring is realized primarily through a type of constituent structure that exists alongside of, and is at least partially independent of, the structure describable in terms oftraditional syntax (subject307 308LANGUAGE, VOLUME 58, NUMBER 2 (1982) of, object-of etc.)1 The various syntactic units of a declarative sentence are partitioned into blocks called pragmatic components which relate in different ways to the context. I use the following functional labels: Connective (Cn), Setting (St), Topic (Tp), Frame (Fr), Core (Cr), and Clarification (Cl). Whenever a sentence has two or more pragmatic components, the relationships of pragmatic function and semantic scope that exist among them group them into hierarchical units, in a way quite similar to the bracketing of phrases in traditional syntax. The end result is a constituent structure of labeled bracketing for the entire sentence—except for Clarification elements, which are not related systematically to the constituent structure (§1.2), and for particles and other elements that can occur 'in the cracks' between pragmatic components (§2.3). Typically, this pragmatic constituent-structure is right-branching; i.e., each component is the first constituent of a binary structure whose second constituent is the remainder of the sentence. Right-branching pragmatic structuring can be illustrated by the following English sentence (parentheses are used to indicate constituent groupings): (1) —Cn- (--------------St-------------- (-Tp----------Cr--------)) And so when everyone had eaten, John excused himself. Various kinds of options are available for the pragmatic structuring of a sentence. One type concerns the presence or absence of components that are pragmatically peripheral, such as Connectives and Clarifications. The type of option discussed here is the choice of an...