In this article, I attempt to show how the notion of topos can help to formulate the contextual assumption underlying the use of the particle mɔ by a Wobe speaker.
As the speaker's contextual assumption claims to be based on general knowledge shared by both both speaker and hearer, it seemed interesting to use the term topos developed by Oswald Ducrot to formulate this assumption.
By implicitly appealing to this shared general knowledge through the particle mɔ, the speaker also signals to the hearer that his or her utterance is justified in the given situation.
A detailed analysis in French of the particle mɔ can be found in chapter 3.2 of my study Analyse conversationnelle de l'échange réparateur en wobé.
