Re: subjects in complex sentences

[Qov <qov@direct.ca>]

lab ter'eS

>I don't understand why either style seems too English- centric, since 
>either is valid in English:
>
>"Because he refused, the captain was killed."
>"Because the captain refused, he was killed."
>
>I don't see any difference in emphasis there. I personally use the "Noun 
>first" pattern, because I felt it was _un_English-centric!

I can explain why I argued that the noun last is English-like. Say I sit 
down to translate, "The man loaned the boys his books so they could read 
them."  in English.

I translate the words: loD, noj, loDHompu', paqmeyDaj, laDmeH, bIH

Then I think about OVS and other grammatical rules, and come up with

bIH laDmeH chaH, loDHompu'vaD paqmeyDaj noj loD.

Whereas thinking in English you wouldn't come up with:

paqmeyDaj laDmeH loDHompu', bIH noj loD.
or
loD paqmey laDmeH loDHompu', bIH noj loD.