4.1. Topic-focus articulation and the lexical content of an expression

The lexical content (t-lemma) of a modification can be helpful in the annotation of contextual boundness. Certain lexical units are usually contextually bound and certain other lexical units tend to be contextually non-bound.

There are the following tendencies in the relationship between the topic-focus articulation and the lexical content of an expression:

NB! Most lexical units that have a tendency towards (non-contrastive) contextual boundness can constitute also the focus proper (see Section 3.1.1, "Focus proper") or form a contrastive contextually bound expression. These two positions can be occupied by almost any lexical unit. It is therefore necessary to distinguish them from other positions where the expressions are (non-contrastive) contextually bound due to their lexical content or syntactic function.

Figure 10.13. Topic-focus articulation and the lexical content of an expression

Topic-focus articulation and the lexical content of an expression

Utratil za tu učebnici sto korun. (=lit. (He) spent for that textbook one_hundred crowns.)

Exceptional cases - personal pronouns. Also the form of a modification can be helpful when annotating contextual boundness. The form used is substantial in the case of personal pronouns. In Czech, for personal pronouns there are two sets of forms for certain cases - strong (jeho (=he.ACC), jemu (=he.DAT), sebe (=oneself.ACC), sobě (=oneself.DAT), tobě (=you.DAT), tebe (=you.ACC)) and weak (ho (=he.ACC), mu (=he.ACC), se (=oneself.ACC), si (=oneself.DAT), tě (=you.ACC), ti (=you.DAT)).

If both strong and weak forms of a pronoun can be used, the actual form is usually motivated by the contextual boundness of the pronoun:

NB! After prepositions and in coordination, personal pronouns always take the strong form, so we cannot use their form to determine their contextual boundness. In such positions nodes representing the strong forms of pronouns get the tfa value t.

Examples:

Pro tebe [tfa=c] to přinesu ZÍTRA. (=lit. To you it.ACC (I) will_bring tomorrow.)

Zítra to pro tebe [tfa=t] PŘINESU. (=lit. Tomorrow it.ACC to you (I) will_bring.)

Zítra to přinesu PRO TEBE [tfa=f] (=lit. Tomorrow it.ACC (I) will_bring to you.)

ZÍTRA to pro tebe [tfa=t] přinesu. (=lit. Tomorrow it.ACC to you (I) will_bring.)

Jemu [tfa=c] a tobě [tfa=c] to přinesu ZÍTRA. (=lit. To_him and to_you it.ACC (I) will_bring tomorrow.)

Zítra to jemu [tfa=t] a tobě [tfa=t] určitě PŘINESU. (=lit. Tomorrow it.ACC to_him and to_you by_all_means (I) will_bring.)