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image of Focus marking in Ìkálẹ̀ and the final-over-final condition
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Abstract

This paper investigates ex-situ focalization in Ìkálẹ̀, a Yorùbá dialect of Nigeria, which appears to violate the Final-Over-Final Condition (FOFC) due to its clause-final morphological focus marking. Starting with a description of focus realization in the language, I propose that Ìkálẹ̀’s ex-situ focus particle realizes a head-final FocP, which dominates a head-initial TP. I argue that such a FOFC-violating structure is best analyzed using the phase-based approach to FOFC’s enforcement (à la Richards 2016, Erlewine 2017), rather than through extended projections. I further discuss two prominent alternative approaches to FOFC, (Biberauer et al.’s (2014) & Biberauer’s (2017a) asymmetric approach and Zeijlstra’s (2023) symmetric approach), and the potential challenges they face. I then propose that the current analysis may be extended to two other Benue-Congo languages (Igede and Nupe) and two other dialects of Yorùbá (Oǹdó and Òkı̀tı̀pupa) with similar ex-situ clause-final morphological focus marking.

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2026-04-02
2026-04-21

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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keywords: Ex-situ focus ; extended projections ; head-finality ; spell-out ; phases ; FOFC

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