Re: Italian Particles

Tim Smith wrote:

> >What if certain brain structures dictate speech patterns?  I have
> >wondered
> >about that.
>
> I think so, at least to some extent.  (In that, at least, I'm a Chomskyan,
> although on the whole I find the functional-typological approach to
> linguistics more interesting than the generativist approach.  (But I don't
> regard the two as mutually exclusive, as I said at perhaps excessive length
> a few weeks ago.))  Of course, since I gather the Teonaht speakers aren't
> exactly human, there's no reason why they should have the same brain
> structures.  But I also think that there are probably functional reasons
> for generally putting topic before comment; other things being equal, it's
> probably easier to parse a sentence if the speaker tells you up front what
> it is they're talking about.
Tim, I GET it!! :-)  SHEESH!  This is beginning to sound like a T.
bashing
session.  How many times do you think you can say, this structure isn't
natural for x, y, and z reasons?  So what if it isn't?  That's its
beauty.

Thanks for the references.


>
> - Tim
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