Re: Alphabet (you're a fish?)

From: "Fabian"

> > Fabian wrote:
> > > No, you made a classic mistake of confusing topic and subject. It
> means
> > > "As for me, it is fish". The sort of thing you might say when asked
> what
> > > you want to eat at a restaurant.
> >
> > Well, it COULD be used that way, but in this context "I am a fish" *was*
> > the intended meaning.  :-)  Besides, IIUC, X wa Y desu is usually
> > interpreted as X is Y, unless the context makes it clear that another
> > meaning is intended.
>
> In order to get that meaning across to a naticve speaker(tm), you'd need
> to say "watashi ga sakana desu", in order to disambiguate.
I think the difference here is one of emphasis or importance of information.

"Watashi ga sakana desu." sounds to my ear like "*I* am a fish." (not you),
or "*I* am the fish" (kookookachoo).

Whereas, "Watashi wa sakana desu." is "I am a *fish*." (not a cow), which I
think would be the more typical type of presenting information in common
conversational contexts".

Konnichi wa, watashi wa Dagurasu desu.
Hi, I'm Douglas.

more usual than

Konnichi wa, watashi ga Dagurasu desu.
Hi, I'm (the) Douglas (you just mentioned)
                                (of your dreams)
                                (you were looking for).

Sooseki's famous novel "I Am a Cat" is
Wagahai wa neko de aru
not
Wagahai ga neko de aru

As for the restaurant example "Watashi wa sakana desu" for "I'll have the
fish" or "It is/was I who ordered the fish". I agree with Nik and Imperative
that this is certainly a valid interpretation, but is extremely context
bound. Chinese has this feature, too.

Wo3 shi4 bing1qi2lin2. is not usually meant
I am ice cream
but
I am (the guy who ordered the) ice cream.

and my personal favorite:

Wo3 shi4 Shang4hai3. could be
I *AM* Shanghai (hear me roar)
but is more normally phonespeak for
I'm (calling from) Shanghai.

Not all subjects are topics and not all topics are subjects, but there are
oodles of sentences where the topic and the subject are one and the same.

Kou

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