640
edits
(→Interaction with Focus Marking: Added information on subject pronoun affixes) |
(→Interaction with Focus Marking: More on focus) |
||
Line 2,706: | Line 2,706: | ||
|} | |} | ||
The soldier died. | The soldier died. ("died" in in focus) | ||
Line 2,720: | Line 2,720: | ||
|} | |} | ||
A soldier died. | A soldier died. ("soldier" in in focus) | ||
Line 2,749: | Line 2,749: | ||
| 3SBJ-die.VFCS | | 3SBJ-die.VFCS | ||
|} | |} | ||
He | He died. ("die" is in focus) | ||
Line 2,772: | Line 2,772: | ||
To make | To reduce the number of things in focus and make the sentence grammatical, there are several options. The first is to put the verb into the noun-focus form e.g. | ||
Line 2,783: | Line 2,783: | ||
| soldier-ERG || hunt.NFCS || frog.ABS | | soldier-ERG || hunt.NFCS || frog.ABS | ||
|} | |} | ||
A soldier is hunting frogs. | A soldier is hunting frogs. ("soldier" and "frog" are in focus) | ||
Line 2,797: | Line 2,797: | ||
| frog.ABS || soldier-ERG || hunt.VFCS | | frog.ABS || soldier-ERG || hunt.VFCS | ||
|} | |} | ||
The frogs are being hunted by a soldier. | The frogs are being hunted by a soldier. ("soldier" and "hunt" are in focus) | ||
Line 2,811: | Line 2,811: | ||
| soldier.ABS || hunt.NFCS || frog.ABS | | soldier.ABS || hunt.NFCS || frog.ABS | ||
|} | |} | ||
The soldier is hunting frogs. | The soldier is hunting frogs. ("hunt" and "frog" are in focus) | ||
Line 2,817: | Line 2,817: | ||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
|- | |||
| day-amielaychu || wùerù | |||
|- | |||
| daiʔamelɛicu || wɨɦʁuɦ | |||
|- | |||
| 3SBJ-hunt.VFCS || frog.ABS | |||
|} | |||
He is hunting frogs. ("hunt" and "frog" are in focus) | |||
It is possible to use two of the above strategies together, to generate sentences with the focus on one thing e.g. | |||
Putting the verb into the noun-focus form and topicalising the object: | |||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
|- | |||
| wùerù || sowdlan || amielaykùe | |||
|- | |||
| wɨɦʁuɦ || sɔudɮaɴ || ʔamelaikɨɦ | |||
|- | |||
| frog.ABS || soldier-ERG || hunt.NFCS | |||
|} | |||
The frogs are being hunted by a soldier. ("soldier" is in focus) | |||
Putting the verb into the noun-focus form and using a pronoun for the subject: | |||
{| class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
|- | |- | ||
| day-amielaykùe || wùerù | | day-amielaykùe || wùerù | ||
|- | |- | ||
| dai | | daiʔamelaikɨɦ || wɨɦʁuɦ | ||
|- | |||
| 3SBJ-hunt.NFCS || frog.ABS | |||
|} | |||
He is hunting frogs. ("frog" is in focus) | |||
Topicalising the object and using a pronoun for the subject. | |||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
|- | |||
| wùerù || day-amielaeychu | |||
|- | |- | ||
| 3SBJ-hunt.VFCS | | wɨɦʁuɦ || daiʔamelɛicu | ||
|- | |||
| frog.ABS || 3SBJ-hunt.VFCS | |||
|} | |} | ||
The frogs are being hunted. ("hunt" is in focus) | |||
Note that | Note that it is not possible to combine all three strategies (using a subject pronominal prefix on a transitive verb in the noun-focus form with the object topicalised) If so, then there would be nothing in the sentence that is in focus. So the following sentence is ungrammatical: | ||
edits