Re: Easy and Interesting Languages -- Website

jcowan@REUTERSHEALTH.COM said:
> Mark P. Line scripsit:
>
>> Triggers work in two parts: you use a  "trigger" morpheme to mark a
>> clause
>> constituent (commonly a noun) as focused, and you mark the "role" (e.g.
>> agent, patient, location, etc.) of this triggered (focused) constituent
>> somewhere else in the clause. In Tagalog, the role is marked by affixes
>> on
>> the verb. Note that triggers implement both a topic/focus function and a
>> valence assignment function.
>
> The role assignment is uncontroversial, but the question of focus is not;
> there are supposedly counterexamples to the claim that the trigger
> argument is always the focus.
I remember seeing something like that, but it was a non-Tagalog-speaking
linguist trying to prove a point in some pet theory or other, IIRC. I
didn't take it very seriously at the time (and I probably still wouldn't
if I could remember the details and dug it up again).

I'd like to take another look if anybody has a reference handy.


-- Mark