Re: Core Cases (was Re: Ditransitivity (again!))

H. S. Teoh scripsit:

> That's not a problem in Ebisedian. You would simply front the topical
> noun, or use a topic-comment construct (below). There is also an emphatic
> marker _iro_ which can be prefixed on the topical noun, but that would be
> inappropriate here (it would carry the force of "it is England that
> conquered Wales", or vice versa).
IOW, it marks the noun as focus rather than topic.

> In any case, Ebisedian tends to take a distanced, objective view of
> things. The raw fact (that England conquered Wales) is more important than
> what is being focused on (whether it is England which conquered Wales or
> it is Wales which was conquered by England). So although it does allow one
> to specify such a focus, the simplest form of the utterance is neutral,
> neither active nor passive.
Lojban takes the same view.

> <sub>...<aux> delimit a subordinate clause modifying _t3m30'_. The
> originative marking of _n0_ agree with the originative _t3m30'_; the
> instrumental _da_ is an instrumental relative pronoun in the subordinate
> clause. The instrumental case here is used in a participial function ("her
> speaking of it").
Ah, clever.  Lojban has an explicit resumptive pronoun for use only in
subordinate clauses (which can come after the NP or between article and noun),
but it is often omitted in accordance with the general principle.

--
John Cowan  jcowan@reutershealth.com  www.reutershealth.com  www.ccil.org/~cowan
The known is finite, the unknown infinite; intellectually we stand
on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability.
Our business in every generation is to reclaim a little more land,
to add something to the extent and the solidity of our possessions.
        --Thomas Henry Huxley