Re: topic/focus or theme/rheme

At 5:21 pm -0500 19/2/99, John Cowan wrote:
>Raimundus A. Brown scripsit:
>
>> But then I read elsewhere: "topicalization takes place when a constituent
>> is moved to the front of a sentence, so that it functions as a topic."
>
>That works only for languages where the topic *is* at the front of
>the sentence, like Chinese and some kinds of English.  Nobody writing
>about Japanese topicalization would say such a thing!
Yes, indeed, it'd only make sense if the topic were always placed there.
As the topic is certainly not placed first in a normal Welsh sentence, then
what I giving in Welsh cannot be examples of topicalization but must, I
assume, be examples of 'focussing'.  But since the verb is focussed by
placing the verbnoun first and having 'gwneud' (to do/ make) as the finite
verb, the normal finite verb first sentence would seem to have no focus,
thus:

=46e aeth Si=F4n i'r lyfrgell.  - finite verb 'aeth' - non-focussed sentence=
:
John went to the library.

I'r lyfrgell aeth Si=F4n. - focus on "i'r lyfrgell" 'to the library'.

Si=F4n aeth i'r lyfrgell. - focus on "Si=F4n" 'John'

Mynd i'r lyfrgell wnaeth Si=F4n. - focus on "mynd" 'to go' - John *went* to
the library.

Is this right? Or am I way off beam?

I guess the German feature, however, of keeping the finite verb as second
idea (I'm not referring, of course, to subordinate clauses) and moving the
subject behind the verb if some other constituent (e.g. direct object,
adverb, adverbial phrase) is put first is topicalization.  This would
explain why the verb itself cannot be fronted, unless to ask a question.

I do find some of the literature on this somewhat confusing (or even
contradictory) and am trying to sort of the two different concepts of
topic/ comment and of focus.  Is the rheme/ theme concept essentially the
same as topic/ comment?

Ray.