Re: Topic-comment sentences in Mandarin

"SMITH,MARCUS ANTHONY" wrote:

> These are referred to as "free topics" and are found in a wide variety of
> languages, including Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Gunwinjguan languages (in
> Australia).
>
> Japanese first:
>
> Yama ga ki ga kirei desu.
> mountain NOM tree NOM pretty be.
> 'As for the mountains, the trees are pretty.'
Shouldn't that be "Yama wa ki ga kirei desu"?


> Here is an example from Mayali.
>
> Maih na-wu gunj na-wu bonj andi-wo gunj andud.
> animal I-DEM kangeroo I-DEM OK 2pS/1sO-give kangaroo then.
> 'Right, that animal, that kangaroo, give it to me!'
>
> IIRC, the topic must be general, and the argument of the verb must be a
> more specific.  Note for examploe, that "mountain" is the general
> location and "tree" is the more specific thing that is pretty in the
> Japanese examples. In the Mayali example, "animal" is more general, and
> "kangaroo" is more specific. I would predict, then, that you could not
> reverse the nouns in the Chinese examples above and still have a
> grammatical sentence.
Malagasy has something similar, but only in existential sentences (note that
topics of this sort are clause-final in Malagasy):

  Misy  efitra telo  ny  tranonay
  exist room   three the house-our
  "Our house has three rooms"
  (lit. "Our house, there are three rooms")

  Tsy nisy    tonga tamin'ny fety  ny  rahalahiko
  not existed came  to-the   party the brother-my
  "None of my brothers came to the party"
  (lit. "My brothers, there isn't [anybody who] came to the party")

Matt.