Re: CONLANG Digest - 20 Apr 2000 to 21 Apr 2000 (#2000-111)

Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> wrote:

>Yes, it inflects regularly, I wasn't saying that.  What I was saying is
>that it's syntactic usage is odd.  The subject is placed at the end, and
>the object at the beginning, as in "A Juan le gusta comer manzanas".  Is
>"Comer manzanas le gusta a Juan" grammatical?

Yes. Emphatic on Juan, "It is *Juan* who likes to eat apples".
At least for me, in this kind of construction you emphasize
whatever comes last, unless it's the normal way (i. e. "comer
manzanas" last).


--Pablo Flores
  http://www.geocities.com/pablo-david/index.html
  ... I cannot combine any characters that the divine Library
  has not foreseen, which in some of its secret tongues do not
  bear some terrible meaning. No-one can articulate a syllable
  not filled of caresses and fears; which is not, in some one
  of those languages, the powerful name of a god...
                   Jorge Luis Borges, _The Library of Babel_