This paper aims at presenting different ways of expressing focus in Foodo, a Guang language. We can differentiate between marked and unmarked focus strategies. The marked focus expressions are first syntactically characterized: the focused constituent is in sentence-initial position and is second always marked obligatorily by a focus marker, which is nɩ for non-subjects and N for subjects. Complementary to these structures, Foodo knows an elliptic form consisting of the focused constituent and a predication marker gɛ́. It will be shown that the two focus markers can be analyzed as having developed out of the homophone conjunction nɩ and that the constraints on the use of the focus markers can be best explained by this fact.

This article reviews some of the theoretical notions and empirical phenomena which figure in current formal-semantic theories of focus. It also develops the connection between “alternative semantics” and “givenness” accounts of focus interpretation.

Nombreux sont les travaux consacrés aux Essais à avoir embrassé d’un seul regard les caractéristiques littéraires et la teneur philosophique du livre de Montaigne. Mais la nature philosophique de la prose d’idées des Essais restait une évidence inquestionnée ; c’est ainsi que s’est constituée une représentation opaque de l’œuvre selon laquelle l’ensemble réputé inextricable de ses aspects ne pouvait être pensé qu’à travers la catégorie doxographique du scepticisme. Enquête méthodologique et critique, la présente thèse vise à dissiper cette opacité en dégageant spéculativement les fondements d’une manière alternative de rendre compte de la philosophie dans les Essais à partir de son articulation avec les propriétés du texte. L’expérience que le lecteur des Essais peut faire de la philosophie montanienne est spécifique : cette philosophie se manifeste comme détermination. Est ensuite démontrée la nécessité méthodologique de localiser la philosophie à sa juste échelle dans le texte pour pouvoir rigoureusement l’identifier. Il apparaît alors que ce n’est qu’à la faveur d’une compréhension poïétique des ressorts textuels de la pensée montanienne que devient véritablement pensable la philosophie des Essais. La description de la philosophie des Essais sur laquelle débouche cette investigation permet enfin de prendre la pleine mesure de l’inventivité d’une pensée tributaire d’une écriture, aux sens matériel et stylistique du terme. / It is common practice for works pertaining to Montaigne's Essays to embrace in a single glance its literary characteristics and its philosophical content. But the philosophical nature of the Essays' non-fictional prose has yet remained unchallenged, crystallizing an opaque representation of the text that precludes its supposedly inextricable aspects from being thought outside the doxographic category of skepticism. A methodological and critical enquiry, the present thesis intends to dispel this opacity by speculatively unfolding the fundamental principles for an alternative construal of the Essays' philosophical content, rooted in its articulation with the properties of the text. The way in which the reader of the Essays shall experience Montaigne's philosophy is specific: this philosophy emerges as semantically determined content. From this ensues the methodological imperative to localize philosophy at its legitimate scope of focus within the text in order to allow for its rigorous identification. It then appears that philosophy of the Essays can only be truly thought through the lens of a poietic understanding of the textual elements of Montaigne’s thought. Finally, the description of the philosophy of the Essays brought about by this enquiry sheds light on the full extent of the ingenuity of Montaigne's thought, tributary of his writing in both the material and stylistic senses of the term.

B. Štěpánková K funkci výrazů částicové povahy ve výstavbě textu... ABSTRACT This dissertation is devoted to a specific type of particle unit which we refer to as the actualizer. Actualizers are differentiated from other particles primarily due to a combination of the following properties: the ability to imply a presupposition and the ability to actualize or emphasize a nearby expression. They play an important role in the topic-focus articulation of a sentence by drawing attention to elements with a greater degree of communicative dynamism, not only in focus or contrastive topic, but also in other parts of the sentence. Unlike previous studies which have concentrated mainly on prototypical representatives of these units, this dissertation tries to capture the greatest possible number of actualizers. At the same time, it aims to describe their semantic characteristics, and based on this, it attempts to categorize actualizers into three semantic groups. From this perspective, we can distinguish between restrictive, inclusive, and temporally emphasizing actualizers. These groups can be further divided according to their specific features. The dissertation also analyzes the possible positioning of the actualizers in various places in a sentence and investigates which expressions can occur in the surroundings...