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Rex May - Baloo wrote: > > If I follow you, the 'topic' marker in Ceqli, as I see it, is word > order. > > Go xau to kan. I see the dog. > > To kan go xau. It's the dog, I see. > > Xau to kan go. I SEE the dog. This last one seems a bit odd. I don't expect the main verb to be topicalized, since it leaves the sentence without a predicate. When done this way, I feel as though it is the "go" that has been topicalized: "It's _I_ who sees the dog". In Mandarin syntax, it would end up as something like "Xau to kan sa bi go.", since the predicate is necessary. Even though Japanese syntax is very different from that of Mandarin, the basic nature of topicalization is much the same. Have you read section 4.1 of Li and Thompson? -- Mike Wright http://www.CoastalFog.net _______________________________________________________ "When they wired us humans up, they really should have labeled the wires--don't you think?" -- Ed