Re: Existential clauses

Carsten Becker scripsit:

> > 'Le monde appartient à ceux qui se lèvent tôt' (French
> > proverb: the world belongs to the ones who stay
> > early).
>
> "Morgenstund' hat Gold im Mund", grrrrr! "Se lever" is in this context
> "to get up", though. "To stay" is "rester", no?
"The early bird catches the worm."

But it's the *second* mouse that gets the cheese.

> Another disadvantage (here of IE langs): Emphasis is not
> grammaticized/lexifyed/whatever-ized. Perhaps you meant "L'assassin,
> c'*est* le notaire!" (It *is* the notary who is the killer.)
In English it is grammaticized:

	The notary is the murderer.
	The murderer is the notary.

mean essentially the same thing, but

	It's the notary who is the murderer.
	It's the murderer who is the notary.

are distinct precisely in what is foreground and what is background.

(There is also a problem in that "notary" is not properly a translation
of "notaire"; in the United States a notary is responsible only for the
authenticity of the signatures to a document signed in his presence, and
not at all for anything about its content; similarly, a notary can witness
that someone appearing before him took an oath, but is not responsible
for anything about the testimony.  Every bank branch has at least one,
and every lawyer is ipso facto a notary as well.  The civil-law notaire
is quite a different thing, and -- except in Louisiana and Puerto Rico --
unknown in the U.S.)

--
Ambassador Trentino: I've said enough. I'm a man of few words.
Rufus T. Firefly: I'm a man of one word: scram!
        --Duck Soup                     John Cowan <jcowan@...>

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