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Rex May - Baloo wrote:
>
> on 2/28/02 8:17 AM, And Rosta at arosta@hidden.email wrote:
>
> > #>>> rmay@hidden.email 02/28/02 02:48pm >>>
> > #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.
> >
> > I think these exemplify focus rather than topic, but be that as it may,
> > how do we distinguish
> >
> > we KISSED
> >
> > from
> >
> > I KISSED you
> >
> Quite right. Emphasis and Topicality two different things.
>
> Perhaps the way to do topics would be:
>
> Tem go, go xau to kan.
>
> As for (concerning) me, I see the dog.
>
> Tem to kan, go xau da. Or,
> Tem to kan, go xau keu.
>
> Hm. Could we say:
>
> Tem xau, go xau to kan.
>
> As for seeing, I saw the dog.
>
> On the other hand, maybe we need a special word other than tem. I'm
> concerned for confusion.
Something similar (as tem is similar to ten), like teq?
> Tem to kan, da pa sama hon.
>
> Might mean,
> As for the dog, he read a book.
> or;
>
> About dogs, he read a book, or He read a book about -dogs-.
[...]
Having teq, you could have things like:
Teq to kan, da pa sama hon.
Regarding dogs, he read a book.
Teq to kan, da pa sama hon tem treniq.
Regarding dogs, he read a book about training (them).
By the way, "to" doesn't seem to fit in this case. Doesn't it make
<kan> definite?
> The kissing thing... Esperanto would just say
>
> Ni kisis reciproke. and Mi kisis vin.
>
> How wd Loglan handle it? I'm inclined to follow english usage and have a
> 'reciproke' available if needed. Mike, how does mandarin make the
> distinction?
Mandarin "to kiss" structurally a verb object, <jie1> "connect" <wen3>
"lips", so it would be:
Wo3men jie1wen3.
We connect-lips.
Wo3 gen1 ni3 jie1-wen3.
I with you connect-lips.
Since it's not a transitive verb, neither of these is precisely the
same as "I kiss you", but the second has something of that feel to me.
But IANANS ("I am not a native speaker." as we used to say on sci.lang.japan.)
In cases involving a transitive verb, like "to hit", it can be
something like:
Wo3men xiang1 da3.
We mutually hit.
Wo3 da3 ni3.
I hit you.
Does 'xiang1' look like Esperanto 'reciproke'?
--
Mike Wright
http://www.CoastalFog.net
_______________________________________________________
"When they wired us humans up, they really should have
labeled the wires--don't you think?" -- Ed