Information structure in Dinka

In the Western Nilotic language Dinka, declarative clauses (with a declarative proclitic particle) includes a preverbal position which is obligatorily occupied by some NP (which may be zero if a third person pronoun). This NP may be considered to be a grammaticalized topic, and it may have almost any grammatical relation to the verb, or none at all. The function of topic selection, when there is a choice, ranges from marking topic continuity to introducing a new scene.
Focus is in Dinka primarily expressed by cleft sentences, which may focalize most of the same constituents as those that may be topicalized in simple declarative sentences. In cleft sentences that are declarative or polar interrogative, the focus is contrastive. In constituent questions, by contrast, the cleft construction is not contrastive, but a synonymous alternative to in situ questions.