tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jan 04 21:48:41 2010
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Re: qoSwIj
On 1/5/2010 12:30 AM, Christopher Doty wrote:
> <DaHjaj qoSwIj 'oH>
> and
> <qoSwIj 'oH DaHjaj'e'>
>
> Are possible translations of this phrase. Any sense of the difference
> here? Perhaps the second, with the topic marker, would carry some of
> its topic sense here, meaning "TODAY is my birthday," as opposed to a
> simple statement?
Okrand tends to confuse the concepts of emphasis and topic (he allowed
himself to be corrected in a HolQeD interview). In TKD he describes
{-'e'} as topic, but then goes on to gives examples of emphasis.
I believe, without direct evidence, that the noun to the right of the
pronoun in "to be" sentences is in the role of topic, not emphasis. It
doesn't mean "today, as opposed to some other day, is my birthday," it
means "as for today, it's my birthday." The first noun and the pronoun
are a complete sentence, and then you add the topic you're talking about
at the end.
As to your first sentence, it's legal according to everything we know,
but every case of this sort of thing has made the time stamp the topic
(and thus the "subject"), following the second sentence, so it may be
that in "to be" sentences it's just not done the first way.
--
SuStel
http://www.trimboli.name/
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