Topic and focus in a head-initial language: Maori
Elizabeth Pearce · 1999
This paper presents a structural interpretation of topicalized and focused constituents in Maori in terms of the expanded CP domain put forward in Rizzi (1997). The analysis identifies the use of a Topic>Focus sequencing in which the initial ko topic marker is a realization of the Force head, whereas the initial na/ma focus markers instantiate a Case function heading the focused XP in the SpecFocusP.