tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Sep 21 08:47:51 2007

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RE: Positioning for emphasis

DloraH ([email protected]) [KLI Member] [Hol po'wI']

> Voragh wrote:
> > > Okrand discusses this in the TKD Addendum in the section
> > > titled "Placement of adverbial elements" (TKD 179-80):
> > >
> > >   It was earlier thought that all adverbials (except {neH} "only")
> > >   come at the beginning of the sentence. This is frequently the
> > >   case, but what is really going on is that the adverbial
> > >   precedes the object-verb-noun construction. It is possible
> > >   for an element of another type to precede the adverb. [...]
> > >      The adverbial may actually follow the object noun (but
> > >   still precede the verb) when the object noun is topicalized by
> > >   means of the nouns suffix {-'e'} (see Section 3.3.5):
> > >
> > >       (HaqwI''e' DaH yISam)   "Find the SURGEON now!"
> > >
> > > Note that Okrand says that it is the *object* noun which 
> is topicalized
> > > and shifted to the front of the sentence (actually, he 
> only says it
> > > precedes the adverbial), NOT the subject.  Note too that 
> it only happens
> > > with adverbials.
> 
> DloraH:
> >ACTUALLY, he says the adverbial may follow the object noun; 
> there is no 
> >mention of "subject" either
> >way; and he doesn't say it ONLY happens with adverbials.  Careful.
> 
> In the first paragraph, Okrand avoids the word "subject"; he says 
> "object-verb-noun construction" to refer to what we would call OVS 
> (object-verb-subject).  In the second paragraph, he repeats 
> the phrase 
> "object noun" twice in the same sentence.  "Object" is thus 
> emphasized 
> three times in two very short paragraphs.
> 
> Both paragraphs are in the "Placement of Adverbial Elements" 
> section of the 
> TKD Addendum.  This pattern is not mentioned anywhere else 
> WRT other parts 
> of speech.  In our two known examples, it only happens with 
> adverbials.  Do 
> you know of others?


I wasn't claiming there are others.  I was simply pointing out the different between what Okrand
wrote and what you quoted him to have written.
The fine defference between "The adverbial may actually follow the object noun" that Okrand wrote,
and "it is the *object* noun which is topicalized and shifted to the front" / "it precedes the
adverbial" which you wrote is part of what this discussion is based on.
You wrote "it only happens with adverbials"; Okrand never stated that.  We see it happening only to
adverbials here, because this section is about "Placement of adverbial elements".

I'm not trying to persuade the discussion in either direction; simply making the quoting more
precise.


DloraH

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