Testing predictions of the Givenness Hierarchy framework: A crosslinguistic investigation

This paper reports on a study that tests predictions of the Givenness Hierarchy theory by extending it to four languages not yet studied in this respect – Eegimaa, Kumyk, Ojibwe, and Tunisian Arabic. Three hypotheses are tested: I. If a language encodes the distinction between two adjacent statuses on the hierarchy, it will also encode distinctions between higher statuses; II. All languages encode distinctions between the two highest statuses, ‘in focus’ and ‘activated’; III. Languages will not have forms that encode the set difference between two statuses. Results of the study provide support for all three hypotheses.