Re: [ceqli] topic - ceqli messages

On Oct 18, 2005, at 8:06 AM, Jim Henry wrote:

On 10/16/05, Rex May <rmay@hidden.email> wrote:

I'm thinking of making topic marking in Ceqli, this way:

Maybe I could just have a particle, as in Japanese, that marks the
topic. Let's say ''tei"

tei to xlaq pa tsanku to kanin.

or maybe it should follow:

to xlaq tei pa tsanku to kanin.

It should have the same position relative
to its headword as other modifier particles.
Don't most such particles precede
their head in ceqli?

Hm. I think you're right. But before we get too deep into this, how about saying.

"The topic of a sentence is normally the same as the subject, which comes first. If another word is the topic, it should come first:

go pa kan to hon. I read the book , It was I who read the book.

to hon go pa kan. As for the book, I read it.

pa kan to hon go. As far as reading is concerned, I read the book.

I think I'm sort of getting topic mixed up with emphasis, if they're not the same thing.

Rex May

rmay@hidden.email

See some of my cartoons at:

http://www.geocities.com/ceqli/BALOOWEBSITE/BALOO.html

and at:

http://homepage.mac.com/rmay/