Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Strategies for disambiguating ad*

From:Eldin Raigmore <eldin_raigmore@...>
Date:Wednesday, June 28, 2006, 17:49
On Thu, 29 Jun 2006 00:12:04 +1000, Yahya Abdal-Aziz <yahya@...>
wrote:
[snip]
>THEORY: >Here I'd like to note that before joining this list I'd never >heard of the Topic - Comment structure, but it seems such >a good fit to the patterns we see, that I'm now often torn >between analysing a given (head-initial) sentence as Topic, >Comment OR as Subject, Predicate. I frankly don't know >which approach is more fruitful or applicable. Anyone?
[snip] I am now reading "Subject and Topic" edited by Charles N. Li. When I have finished it, I may be able to answer your question. I have read Li and Thompson's 1976 paper "Subject and Topic: A New Typology of Language." I can't claim I've absorbed it completely. But FWIW based on the writings of authors who site that paper, I'd say that topic-prominence is probably an areal feature of the linguistic areas containing the natlangs you are asking about. So chances are, they are likely to be topic-prominent, whether or not they are also subject- prominent. BTW a language may be topic-prominent or subject-prominent; apparently some are both; and some have been said to be neither. In a language which is both, your dilemma might persist. I imagine it would be worse in a language which is neither. But just given the area from which your languages come, I'd guess "topic" first, and guess "subject" only if that didn't work; and be prepared for the possibility that neither "works". Subject and topic are related; essentially, subjects are, diachronically speaking, grammaticalized topics. Topics always have to be definite; so, in some languages, subjects have to be definite (though not in all). ----- eldin ----- Below is the first ten hits of a Google search. http://www.google.com/\ search?q=\ topic+comment+subject+topic-prominent+subject-prominent+Li+Charles+N. Scholarly articles for topic comment subject topic-prominent subject- prominent Li Charles N. Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar - by Li - 445 citations Topic and topic-comment constructions in Mandarin Chinese - by Shi - 19 citations THE ACQUISITION OF TOPIC MARKING IN L1 CHINESE AND L1 ... - by Hendriks - 4 citations Introduction Subject-Prominent and Topic-Prominent Languages, Neither Subject-Prominent nor ... "Subject and Topic: A New Typology of Language." In: Charles N. Li (ed. ... ling.kgw.tu-berlin.de/Korean/Artikel03/I.htm - 13k - Cached - Similar pages Subject vs. Topic particularly noticeable among the topic-prominent languages since the topic- comment ... *Charles N. Li & Sandra A. Thompson. 1976. "Subject and Topic: A New ... ling.kgw.tu-berlin.de/Korean/Artikel03/II.htm - 21k - Cached - Similar pages [ More results from ling.kgw.tu-berlin.de ] Citations: Subject and Topic: A new typology of language - Li ...Li, Charles N., and Sandra A. Thompson. 1976. Subject and Topic: A New ... are subject prominent (as opposed to eg Chinese, which is a topic prominent ... citeseer.ist.psu.edu/context/264983/0 - 26k - Cached - Similar pages [PDF] ALS 2005 Conference Paper Template File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML typology is shown below:. Subject-Prominent. Topic-Prominent ... Li, Charles N. and Sandra. Thompson. 1976. Subject and Topic: A New Typology of Language. ... www.arts.monash.edu.au/ling/als/assets/korpi-topics.pdf - Similar pages [RTF] Junichi Toyota File Format: Rich Text Format - View as HTML In subject-prominent (Sp) languages, the structure of sentences favours a ... Li, Charles N. and Sandra A. Thompson 1976. Subject and topic: a new typology ... www.ling.helsinki.fi/kielitiede/20scl/Toyota.rtf - Similar pages [PDF] Symposium on Diachronic and Synchronic Studies on the Syntax of ... File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML Tagalog is [- topic prominent], [-subject prominent]. ... Li, Charles N., and Sandra A. Thompson. 1976. Subject and Topic: a new typology of. language. ... www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/ealc/chinling/ articles/object_preposing_2002.pdf - [PDF] A Functional Similarity between Bimanual Coordination and Topic ...File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML structure (see discussion of topic-prominent languages and. subject- prominent languages ... Li, Charles N. & Sandra A. Thompson. “Subject and Topic: A new ... amor.rz.hu-berlin.de/~h2816i3x/BimanualCoordination.pdf - Similar pages [PDF] Sentence-internal Topics in Mandarin Chinese: The Case of Object ... File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML prominent], [+subject prominent], and Tagalog is [-topic prominent], [- subject ... Subject and Topic, ed. by Charles N. Li, 25-55. New York: Academic Press. ... www.ling.sinica.edu.tw/publish/LL3.4-03-Paul-paper.pdf - Similar pages [PDF] 01_Bruce_Ingham 1..9999 File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat `subject prominent' languages. A topic prominent language is ... Li, Charles, N. & Thompson, Sandra, 1976. `Subject and Topic; a new typology of ... www.blackwell-synergy.com/ doi/abs/10.1111/j.0079-1636.2003.00123.x - Similar pages [PDF] The syntactic development of school-age Chinese-speaking children ... File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat tory in subject-prominent languages, topic-prominent languages do not require ... Li, Charles N. and Sandra A. Thompson, (1976). Subject and topic: A new ... www.extenza-eps.com/WDG/doi/pdf/10.1515/iral.2002.012 - Similar pages

Reply

Roger Mills <rfmilly@...>