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Re: Heavy constituents in left-branching langs

From:Lars Finsen <lars.finsen@...>
Date:Sunday, January 7, 2007, 17:02
Den 7. jan. 2007 kl. 17.14 skrev JR:
> > Eloshtan also has subordinate clauses after the verb, but I consider a > quotation to be an NP. I mean, a quotation doesn't have to have a > verb at > all. How would you translate into Gaajan, "She said 'apples and > oranges.'"? > Well at least those are nouns, and maybe you'd leave treat them as > direct > objects. But what if the quotation had several parts, like "She > said 'No! > Well ... maybe.... No! Apples and oranges! That's what I was > supposed to > buy.'"? Or what if you wanted to quote something ungrammatical that > someone > said, or something in a foreign language?
Well, the first one I would actually translate: "'Kalakuwe oranjus' ini a." And when it's longer, like in your second example, I would split it up. Which is pretty customary in English as well, as you indicated yourself: "'No!' she said, "Well ...etc." Another natural thing to do, at least if you quote longer speeches, is to put it the Nietzschean way that Henrik proposed. That is: a separate sentence. In Gaajan the transitive auxiliary implies a pronoun if the sentence doesn't contain a direct object, so if you separate the quote out by a colon and quotation marks, the 'ini a' alone will mean 'she said it' instead of just 'she said'. Thus: "Ini a: 'apples and oranges.'" But you can also use 'pad' (this) for emphasis: "Pad ini a: 'apples and oranges.'" Now, the colon and quotation marks of course aren't heard when you speak. And Gaajan actually isn't a written language. But complete sentences such as the "Ini a:" or "Pad ini a:" above will be pronounced with more finality (lower final tone on the auxiliary and a longer pause after it) than just an initial clause. I'm sure your conpeople must have something similar. LEF

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JR <fuscian@...>