[Tlhingan-hol] To-Be-Constructions

[David Trimboli]

On 4/2/2012 6:45 AM, Philip Newton wrote:
>
> On Sun, Apr 1, 2012 at 20:14, Felix Malmenbeck<felixm at kth.se>
> wrote:
>> After all, we have phrases like {nuqDaq 'oH puchpa''e'.}, with
>> puchpa''e' as the subject of 'oH.
>
> Hm. I wonder whether it is the subject of {'oH}, or merely an
> adverbial for the phrase that happens to be in that position rather
> than at the front.
>
> Is there a difference between {nuqDaq 'oH puchpa''e'} and
> {puchpa''e' nuqDaq 'oH}? (The latter in the sense of {HaqwI''e' DaH
> yISam}.)

Don't even call it an adverbial in the sense of that word in TKD. An 
adverbial is one of the {chuvmey}, but here {puchpa''e'} is a {DIp}.

I myself have suggested this interpretation in the past. {puchpa''e'} is 
the topic of the sentence {nuqDaq 'oH}. It's just got a special 
grammatical rule placing the topic at the end, in what would generally 
be considered the subject position. Whether it's considered a subject is 
immaterial; it's definitely a topic.

-- 
SuStel
http://www.trimboli.name/