Re: topic/compliment & Sanskrit script

At 1/28/01 01:20 PM -0500, you wrote:
>On Sun, 28 Jan 2001, Patrick Dunn wrote:
>
> > Actually, that was very useful!  I'm doing it right, then!
> >
> > Topic is, to pare it down to the bare essentials, an emphasis?
>
>I would tend to think of it that way, yes.  :-p
Topic/comment in Japanese is also used to make the distinctions English
makes with indefinite/definite.

In English, the first reference to a person or thing is indefinite, and
subsequent references are definite. In Japanese, the first reference to a
subject uses _ga_, and subsequent references use _wa_ (provided that the
person is also the topic of the sentence).

A man came to my apartment. The man ate my apples.

Hito ga boku no apaato ni kita. Hito wa, boku no ringo tabeta.
person NOM I POSS apartment to came. Person TOP I POSS apple ate.




Marcus Smith

"Sit down before fact as a little child,
be prepared to give up every preconceived notion,
follow humbly wherever and to whatsoever abysses Nature leads,
or you shall learn nothing."
                -- Thomas Huxley