The study aims at examining current linguistic theories on information structure such as
Rizzi's cartographic approach and modifications thereof in the light of empirical data. The
author provides a preliminary overview on topic and focus constructions in a number of mostly
European languages and then concentrates on two languages from West Africa Akan and Ewe in
which focussed and topicalized constituents are overtly marked. On the basis of the data from
these African languages the author modifies the preliminary topic and focus typology discusses
cases which cannot be accounted for by the theoretical assumptions put forward in the
cartographic approach and challenges the interchangeability of the concepts of concord and
agreement.
