Live interaction sessions on Zoom:
Apr 20, 17:00-18:00 (CEST) https://mit.zoom.us/j/8994353423
Feel free to contact us at {dfwu,ysg}@mit.edu if you have any questions or this time does not work for you.
**Abstract**: Many Bantu languages exhibit a fixed placement of focus, the
so-called *Immediately-after-the-Verb (IAV)* position, which appears after
the verb, and at the right edge of vP. In Zulu, elements in this position
appear at the edge of a prosodic phrase, and are, as a result, subject to a
process of *penultimate vowel lengthening (PVL)*. We compare the degree of
PVL at the IAV/vP-final position to other positions which undergo
penultimate vowel lengthening and find that elements in the IAV/vP-final
position undergo the greatest degree of PVL. We suggest that this supports
an analysis of Zulu focus in which elements move to the IAV/vP-final
position because it has an inherent prosodic prominence (Cheng & Downing
'09), not because it is associated with a low FocusP.