Re: Using 'to be' and cases

On Mon, 26 Sep 2005 15:12:58 +0200, Henrik Theiling <theiling@...> wrote:

>Hi!
>
>Please, could you switch off HTML altogether when posting?
>
sure.

>
>Accusative is used neither in German here, nor in Japanese (two langs
>that more or less overtly mark case).  The point is, one of the
>constituents is usually viewed to be part of the verb, which is,
>therefore, intransitive, while the other one is the argument.
>
>Japanese shows this quite clearly: in 'is her dream a thought',
>'dream' would be marked to be the topic, while 'thought' would get no
>marking and is just before the 'to be' verb.  The structure is:
>
>   she-GEN dream-TOP thought is QUESTION?
>
>I.e. 'thought-being' is the concept the intransitive, compound verb
>expresses, and the sentences asks whether 'her dream' is the argument
>of that verb.
>
>Contrast with: 'is her thought a dream?':
>
>   she-GEN thought-TOP dream is QUESTION?
>
>In German, it's essentially the same, only it does not used markers
>that make the situation as clear as in Japanese, but uses word order
>only.
>
That seems nice. I looked it up
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topic-prominent_language) and I'll expiriment
a bit with this first.

Thanks!

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