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Re: Existential clauses

From:John Cowan <jcowan@...>
Date:Monday, July 12, 2004, 17:39
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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Ray Brown <ray.brown@...>IE emphasis (was: Existential clauses)