Focus–cleft merger: Difference between revisions

612 bytes added ,  19:16, 5 December 2023
reduce intro to a link to Topic, focus, cleft; add a section on {{t|ná}}, which I just find so cute
(tó → júaq to make the example easier to Cognize)
(reduce intro to a link to Topic, focus, cleft; add a section on {{t|ná}}, which I just find so cute)
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This {{proposal}}, which may colloquially be termed the {{class|kü}} proposal, wishes to merge three features of the language:
This {{proposal}}, which may colloquially be termed the {{class|kü}} proposal, wishes to merge these seemingly heterogeneous features together: [[focus, topic, cleft]]s. In short, it does this by allowing focus markers to conjugate into clefts ({{class|kú}} {{class|}}), and then runs the logic the opposite way to arrive at {{t|}}.
* [[Focus marker]]s, like {{t|kú}} and {{t|tó}}.
* [[Cleft]]s using {{t|nä}}, like {{t|Máoja nä chuq jí hóa}} ‘I eat the bananas’.
* [[Topic|Topic phrases]], introduced by {{t|}}, like {{t|Báq maoja bï, he bu cho jí hóa}} ‘As far as bananas go, I don’t like them’.


== Focus marker clefts ==
== Focus marker clefts ==
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: {{t|{{small caps|phrase}} bï, {{small caps|phrase}} nä {{small caps|clause}}}}.
: {{t|{{small caps|phrase}} bï, {{small caps|phrase}} nä {{small caps|clause}}}}.
In other words, the focused (or should I say topicked?) clause is reasserted (kept intact), but also raised/copied as the topic. So for {{t|Fa jí bí râo níchaq}}, instead of ‘As for [something being] today, I go’ (see reference), we should expect ‘As for [something being] today, I go today’.
In other words, the focused (or should I say topicked?) clause is reasserted (kept intact), but also raised/copied as the topic. So for {{t|Fa jí bí râo níchaq}}, instead of ‘As for [something being] today, I go’ (see reference), we should expect ‘As for [something being] today, I go today’.
== {{t|ná}} ==
One silly consequence of running the {{tone|2}} ↔︎ {{tone|3}} logic both ways is that we may arrive at {{t|ná}}. {{t|ná}}’s definition (denotation) would literally be “do nothing” (more formally, λ𝑓𝑥.𝑓𝑥), so what use could it have? The one use I can think of is grammatical clarity: you can use it like a spoken comma or bracket or fence/signpost to make your long sentences easier to stomach:
<blockquote><poem>
{{t|Jeq suao {{orange|ná, ꝡé do súq jí hóa,}} {{green|ná, ꝡé do jí súq hóa}} da.}}
<i>{{orange|The things you’ve given me}} are equally important as {{green|the things I’ve given you}}.</i>
</poem></blockquote>


==References==
==References==
<references/>
<references/>