[B-Greek] Re: Predicate as topic

Elizabeth Kline kline-dekoning at earthlink.net
Sun Jun 26 15:15:30 EDT 2005


On 6/26/05 12:41 PM, "R Yochanan Bitan Buth" <ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il> wrote:

>> ...In 'standard' Functional Grammar the analysis of a
>> predicate initial clause requires an explanation for topic placement after
>> the main verb. 
> 
> This sounds like every clause needs to have a [pragmatically marked] topic or
> that anything Œtopical¹ is therefore a pragmatic Topic function. I beg to
> differ. 
> ŒSubjects¹ are a kind of grammaticalized ŒTopic¹ and syntactically place or
> mark Œtopical material¹.
> Pragmatics and functional grammar(s) need to keep pragmatically MARKED topics
> distinct from unmarked Œtopical¹ information, including unmarked Subjects.

Randall (Dr. Buth),

You are correct. The terminology Topic, Topical, Topicalizaton is not very
helpful to lesser mortals. I understand that not every clause will have a
pragmatically marked topic. I was using the term "Topical" as short hand for
"pragmatically marked topic" which isn't they way it is used in the FG
literature. You are also correct that predicate initial clauses are common
in ancient Greek and by no means are they all such predicates pragmatically
marked for topic. In fact the situation is somewhat unusual.

Thank you for responding.  As you pointed out, reading Helma Dik's thesis
involves a steep learning curve. Having read a little of the Simon Dik and
Givon the material is somewhat familiar but FG is still a little mysterious
and it helps to have some expert insight.

thanks for your help,

Elizabeth Kline 





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