Re: GROUPLANG: theme

Herman wrote:
>
>On Tue, 13 Oct 1998 17:56:42 -0300, Pablo Flores
><fflores@...> wrote:
>
>>My idea is: let's mark theme with a prefix (added to the
>>already-case-inflected word) or with a postposition,
>>and then delete it in the next sentences, just as in Japanese;
>>OR let's not mark it!
>
>I prefer the postposition; it acts as a delimiter. Or perhaps a pause
>(represented by a comma) would suffice.
I agree with the pause, as long as the comma is always there.
This of course means the pause is going to be *phonemic*. I like
the idea.


Also, Christophe wrote:

>        If we don't mark the theme with a grammatical feature, I think we
>should put it mandatorily at the beginning of the sentence (so allowing OSV
>structures if the theme is the object). I like the fact that the theme can
>be recognized immediately.
I agree. Indeed, we're marking everything with a case inflection,
so scrambling the word order a bit wouldn't hurt. You have the theme,
a comma-pause, and then the rest of the sentence, in the "correct" order,
minus the theme.


--Pablo