Re: New lang (got bored)

In a message dated 2/15/2000 1:57:12 AM Eastern Standard Time,
ray.brown@FREEUK.COM writes: (re Keolah's conlang)

<< Sorry - I'm confused.
 I thought - tho I may be wrong - that trigger systems were to do with
 fronting the 'topic' (or 'theme') as in, e.g. Japanese, Samoan and, closer
 to home, German.  The English passive is surely an example of
 topicalization, not focus.>>
    Au contraire.  I may have caused confusion-- the subtleties of syntax
have never been one of my favorite topics, so I could well be using terms
interchangeably where I oughtn't.  That said, for me "focus", "fronting" and
"topicalization" are pretty much the same thing, at least as I've encountered
them in the Malayo-Polynesian field.  They do of course depend on context,
stylistics, speaker's intention etc., so isolated examples are difficult.
(Possibly a British vs. American difference in terminology/analytical
approach-- tho modern US discourse analysis, if I'm not mistaken, is based on
a British model [??]).  I'm open to instruction/correction......

 Of course from Keolah's three sentences taken out of context, it's not
 possible to tell whether we have focus fronting or topic fronting.  But the
 English translations suggested the latter to me.

 [snip]
 >eg. amibi ka va zaru vu saku - "The gnome sings and gets shot" ;)

 Surely topic and comment.

 Ray.

 PS - as the topic/comment and focus business comes up again & again on the
 list, is there a Conlang FAQ somewhere that explains these terms? >>
    I think so...let me look.  A good idea.