Re: Italian Particles

Muke Tever wrote:
>
> >>Why can't the human brain be perfectly capable
> >>of
> >>thinking object first instead of subject first?
> >>
> >>        Rain, I like it.  Small step to:  Rain I like.
> >>        The door, I closed it.  The T say:  The door I closed.
> >
> >This is exactly what I'm talking about.  You're fronting the object _when
> >it's the topic_.  It's only when this becomes the default, unmarked order,
> >so that the object comes first whether or not it's the topic, that it
> >begins to sound "unnatural".
>
> How about something like Spanish "Me gusta comer manzanas"?  Where "comer
> manzanas" is the subject of the verb _gustar_.
>
> ('Me' isn't topic; to make the speaker topic wants "A mí me gusta...")
I thought this construction was simply dative with impersonal: "(it)
pleases me to eat manzanas."  Old English has a host of these, but we've
lost the tendency now.  Survives in Shakespeare's methinks.

Sally
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