Clefting and beyond in Tigrinya

Nazareth Amlesom Kifle, Michael Gasser


Abstract
This paper aims to give a preliminary analysis of focus marking constructions in Tigrinya within the Universal Dependency (UD) framework. We identify three types of constructions that we consider clefting. All three involve a copula placed after the focus element, the UD root, and a subordinate verb form representing the presupposed information. Tigrinya has three possibilities for this subordinate verb, which we annotate as csubj, advcl, and xcomp. In each, we use the subrelation cleft to indicate the common structure and function of the different cleft types on a par with the use of subrelations pass for passive in different languages.
Anthology ID:
2026.udw-1.3
Volume:
Proceedings of the Ninth Workshop on Universal Dependencies (UDW 2026)
Month:
May
Year:
2026
Address:
Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Editors:
Çağrı Çöltekin, Kaja Dobrovoljc
Venues:
UDW | WS
SIG:
Publisher:
ELRA Language Resources Association (ELRA)
Note:
Pages:
54–59
Language:
External URL:
https://lrec.elra.info/lrec2026-ws-udw-03
DOI:
10.63317/5ojvyhm9rz54
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):
Nazareth Amlesom Kifle and Michael Gasser. 2026. Clefting and beyond in Tigrinya. In Proceedings of the Ninth Workshop on Universal Dependencies (UDW 2026), pages 54–59, Palma de Mallorca, Spain. ELRA Language Resources Association (ELRA).
Cite (Informal):
Clefting and beyond in Tigrinya (Kifle & Gasser, UDW 2026)
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