The verb focus construction in Iron Ossetic

This paper describes a construction consisting of a participle-converb with the suffix -gæ and the verb kænən ‘to do’ in Iron Ossetic. I show that it marks verb focus and is obligatorily used in the presence of focus particles modifying a verb. Its morphosyntactic properties include (1) attachment of prefixes to the auxiliary verb and (2) the interposition of negative and other elements in the left preverbal position. These properties can be linked to the placement of the non-finite form in -gæ in the focus position. This accounts for the incompatibility of the verb focus construction with complex verbs consisting of a nominal part and a light verb (often kænən ‘to do’), as their being in focus is marked with the nominal part appearing in the focus position. I conclude that the Ossetic focus construction showcases a cross-linguistically attested strategy of employing periphrasis with a verb ‘to do’ for marking verb focus in a language with word order restrictions.