Trigger/Focus - Once again

I've re-found an explanation about Tagalog's use of focus
just last evening, compared it to Ayeri, and noticed that I
must have understood this stuff correctly in fact (I had
doubts again recently and thus wanted to check.):

1) Dinala     ng doktor     ang elepante     sa ospital.
   Carried    the doctor    the elephant     to the hospital
   TRG:P      [A]           TRG              LOC

   => The doctor carried THE ELEPHANT to the hospital.
   => THE ELEPHANT was carried to the hospital by the doctor.

2) Dinala     ang doktor     ng elepante     sa ospital.
   Carried    the doctor     the elephant    to the hospital.
   TRG:P      TRG            [A]             LOC

   => The elephant carried THE DOCTOR to the hospital.
   => THE DOCTOR was carried to the hospital by the elephant.

3) Dinala     ng ospital     ang doktor     sa elepante.
   Carried    the hospital   the doctor     to the elephant.
   TRG:P      [A]            TRG            LOC

   => The hospital carried THE DOCTOR to the elephant.
   => THE DOCTOR was carried to the elephant by the hospital

The description says that the 'affix in the verb'
(presumably 'na', because Tagalog does a lot of infixing)
determines that in the first sentence the doctor carries
the elephant. Accordingly, in the second sentence the
elephant carries the doctor and in the third sentence,
the hospital carries the doctor. We know this because
_ang_ means 'focus' (and also definite article), _ng_
is the 'non-focus' article that and the noun phrase is
called 'relational' ('ng' is also the indefinite article)
and _?-na-_ means 'focused argument = undergoer'. We know
that the noun following 'ng' *must* be the agent (doer),
because there's no other possiblity (that's why I put 'A'
in square brackets above).

It's really a pity, that the grammar these examples are from
(from that seasite.niu.edu page) does not use interlinears.

In Ayeri, we have in analogy* (lacking a word for 'elephant'
and to lazy to make one up):

1) Sira maniniyà   caromayáng   elepanin      mgsh. nangabanyaea.
   Carried         the doctor   the elephant  to the hospital
   TRG:P           A            TRG           LOC

   => The doctor carried THE ELEPHANT to the hospital.
   => THE ELEPHANT was carried to the hospital by the doctor.

2) Sira maniniyà   caromayain   elepanang     mgsh. nangabanyaea.
   Carried         the doctor   the elephant  to the hospital.
   TRG:P           TRG          A             LOC

   => The elephant carried THE DOCTOR to the hospital.
   => THE DOCTOR was carried to the hospital by the elephant.

3) Sira maninarà   nangabanyáng   caromayain   mgsh. elepanea
   Carried         the hospital   the doctor   to the elephant
   TRG:P           A              TRG          LOC

   => The hospital carried THE DOCTOR to the elephant.
   => THE DOCTOR was carried to the elephant by the hospital.

_-in_ does here what in Tag. 'ang' does. _-ang_ has no
equivalent and marks the doer of an action (if you want,
'ng' in the Tag. examples), _-ea_ does the same as 'sa'.
'ng' has no real equivalent, i.e. there is no morpheme for
'non-focus' in Ayeri. The word _sira_ has the function of
_?-na-_ in that it means 'focused argument = undergoer'.
Ayeri has special markers for indefinite nouns, though. So
while in the Tagalog examples, the nouns following 'ng'
should be kind of indefinite IIUC, mine are all definite.

In the examples above the patient (undergoer) has always
been focused, but in trigger systems, you can focus any
role. Thus, there is no typical subject as in nom/acc or
erg/abs languages (i.e. S/AGT resp. S/PAT). Because the
role of the focused participant is marked on the verb,
some see the focus system as verbal modes, i.e. as part
of the verbal morphology, while others see it as part of
the nominal morphology.

If I'm wrong, please correct me. Otherwise, save this for
newbies somewhere for a quick explanation ;-)

Cheers,
Carsten



*) Putting my translations into the same structure as the
Tagalog sentences at the beginning, you receive (assumed
that an infixed focus-role-marker is right):

1) Manisiraniyà ang caromaya in elepan ea mangasaha nangabanya.
2) Manisiraniyà in caromaya ang elepan ea mangasaha nangabanya.
3) Manisiranarà ang nangabanya in caromaya ea mangasaha elepan.

I know that Tag. 'ng' is pronounce /nAN/.

--
Keywords: trigger, focus

"Miranayam cepauarà naranoaris."
(Calvin nay Hobbes)