As part of its research activities, the LaCNAD laboratory (Languages and Civilizations of North Africa and the Diaspora) at the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO, Paris), together with the doctoral students of the research unit, is organizing a study day on 27 March 2026 on Information Structure and the Typology of Topicalization and Focalization, through Detachment in Tamaziɣt (Berber) and Libyan and Levantine Arabic. Organized by doctoral students, this event aims to foster an open dialogue between junior and senior researchers working on information structure in Berber and dialectal Arabic, particularly on the topics of topicalization, focalization, detachment structures, and prosody, from both a theoretical and typological perspective.

Information structure, in its categories of theme (topic) and rheme (focus), has been studied by a number of scholars, particularly in Berber, including Basset (1950), Galand (1959, 1964, 2002, 2014, among others), Leguil (1992), Chaker (1995, 1998), Mettouchi (2003a, b; 2010; 2021), and Lafkioui (2002, 2006, 2010, 2014), among others. We will examine the profile of these pragmatic categories of theme and rheme, or topic and focus (even though, according to some authors, these concepts do not fully overlap; see especially Vallduví & Engdahl 1996), their markers, and the interactions between prosody, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics. Depending on the speakers’ respective fields of study, this study day will provide an opportunity to return to the definitions of these pragmatic categories, which are often a point of disagreement among authors, or perhaps to revisit and further deepen the examination of certain well-known themes.

The topics that may be addressed are broadly related to the information structure of languages belonging to the Afroasiatic family, such as Berber, Arabic, and other languages, depending on the authors’ area of specialization. The themes of this study day may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Typology of theme (topic)
• Typology of rheme (focus)
• Morphemic marking of these categories
• Thematization (topicalization) and prosody
• Rhematization (focalization) and syntax
• Detachment structures (topic, anti-topic)
• The link between thematization and rhematization
• Attempts at defining these categories (as there is still some confusion regarding the different definitions proposed by authors on these issues)
• Etc.

We would be very pleased to count you among our invited speakers so that you may share your experience and enrich the scientific exchanges between generations of researchers. Subject to feasibility, we would also like to turn the contributors’ presentations into a publication after editing. Our foremost wish is that this study day will help foster reflection and enrich discussion on this topic and others. With our advance thanks for your attention, and sincerely hoping for your participation. For any questions, please feel free to contact us using the details below. Participation may take place either in person in Paris or remotely via videoconference. Thank you once again for the attention you give to this invitation, and we very much hope that you will agree to take part in this day of collective reflection.

Please send a summary of your presentation: maximum 2,000 characters (including spaces).

Presentation time: 20 to 30 minutes.

Requested deadline for your response: 26 February 2026.

Date of the event: 27 March 2026.

Venue: INALCO Research Center, 2 rue de Lille, 75007 Paris.

Salem Djemai: Senior Lecturer (HDR), University of Tizi Ouzou, Algeria
Bruno Hérin: Professor, Inalco
Ourida Manseri: PhD candidate, Inalco
Ourida Aït-Mimoune: PhD, Inalco
Christophe Pereira: Professor, Inalco
Brahim Taoufyq: PhD candidate, Inalco

Basset, André. “On Anticipation in Berber.” In Articles on Berber Dialectology, 2nd ed., Linguistics series. Paris: Librairie C. Klincksieck, 1959.

Bearth, Thomas. “The Contribution of African Linguistics towards a General Theory of Focus: Update and Critical Review.” Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 20, no. 2 (1999): 121–156. https://doi.org/10.1515/jall.1999.20.2.121

Benkato, Adam, and Christophe Pereira. “An Innovative Copula in Maghrebi Arabic and Its Dialectological Repercussions: The Case of Copular yabda.” Languages 6, no. 4 (2021). https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/6/4/178/htm

Bentolila, Fernand. Functional Grammar of a Berber Variety: Aït Seghrouchen of Oum Jeniba (Morocco). Langues et civilisations à tradition orale, 46. Paris: Société d’études linguistiques et anthropologiques de France, 1981.

Caron, Bernard, Cécile Lux, Stefano Manfredi, and Christophe Pereira. “The Intonation of Topic and Focus: Zaar (Nigeria), Tamasheq (Niger), Juba Arabic (South Sudan) and Tripoli Arabic (Libya).” In Studies in Corpus Linguistics, edited by Amina Mettouchi, Martine Vanhove, and Dominique Caubet, vol. 68. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.68.03car

Chafe, Wallace. “Givenness, Contrastiveness, Definiteness, Subjects, Topics and Point of View.” In Subject and Topic, edited by C. N. Li. New York: Academic Press, 1976.

Chaker, Salem. Berber Linguistics: Studies in Syntax and Diachrony. M.S.-Ussun amazigh, 8. Louvain/Paris: Peeters, 1995.

Féry, Caroline, Gisbert Fanselow, and Manfred Krifka, eds. The Notions of Information Structure. Interdisciplinary Studies on Information Structure, 6. Potsdam: Universitätsverlag Potsdam, 2007.

Galand, Lionel. Studies in Berber Linguistics. Collection linguistique, 83. Louvain/Paris: Peeters, 2002.

Lacheret, Anne, and Jacques François. “From the Notion of Topical Detachment to That of an Extra-Propositional Thematic Constituent.” Cahiers de praxématique, no. 40 (2003): 167–198. https://doi.org/10.4000/praxematique.2730

Lafkioui, Mena B. “Topicalization in Berber: Forms and Structures.” In Essay on Dialectal Variation, edited by Harry Stroomer and Maarten Kossmann, vol. 28, Berber Studies. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, 2010.

Lambrecht, Knud. Information Structure and Sentence Form: Topic, Focus and the Mental Representations of Discourse Referents. Cambridge Studies in Linguistics, 71. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Leguil, Alphonse. Predicative Structures in Berber: Assessment and Perspectives. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1992.

Louali, Naïma, and Amina Mettouchi. “Intonational Structures in Berber: The Predicative Utterance with the Particle d.” In Speech Prosody, edited by B. Bel and I. Marien, 2002.

Mettouchi, Amina. “From a Corpus-Based to a Corpus-Driven Definition of Clefts in Kabyle (Berber): Morphosyntax and Prosody.” Faits de langues 52, no. 1 (2021): 207–226. https://doi.org/10.1163/19589514-05201010