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From: elna@netcom.com (Esperanto League N America)
Subject: Re: Esperanto and Discourse features
Message-ID: <elnaD652s6.Mwp@netcom.com>
Organization: Esperanto League for North America, Inc.
References: <Pine.SOL.3.91.950314135003.10714E-100000@suma3.reading.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 1995 07:14:30 GMT
Lines: 49
Sender: elna@netcom2.netcom.com

Monika Limmer <llulimer@reading.ac.uk> writes in a recent posting (reference <Pine.SOL.3.91.950314135003.10714E-100000@suma3.reading.ac.uk>):
>
>I wonder if somebody has any info about this: yesterday in our English 
>Grammar two course we talked about things like topicalization and focus, 
>and other discourse features. We were told that the new element in a 
>sentence (at least in English) in a discourse is normally positioned at 
>the end of the sentence, whereas the known info is at the beginning.
>
>Yesterday I met our new neighbour. He (old infofrom last sentence) moved 
>into that new house (New info)
>
This is the normal pattern, and one could break from the pattern in order to
emphasise some element.

Yesterday I met our new neighbor. You know that new house down the street?-- 
he just moved into that one.     [it's that *new* house he's moving into]


>We had all kinds of example sentences from German and Hungarian as well, 
>especially on focus. How are things like focus and topicalization marked 
>in Esperanto? Is there a regular rule, or are there exceptions?
>I do not know how clear I made my request, but I was just interested how 
>things like that were expressed in a 'created' language, and how regular 
>any such rules are.

Esperanto has much more freedom in word order than English or German [I know
no Hungarian]. So topicalization cannot be marked by breaking from a normal
word order. Focus tends to be at the start and finish of sentences, as in
Hellenic Greek. Standard prose leans towards the first word, while loftier
style shifts the focus to the last word.

As to new vs. old information, my sense of prose style might be heavily
influenced by my native tongue; for I feel it is the same as English, unless
the intention is to shift emphasis.
   Hieraux mi renkontis nian novan najbaron. Li jxus translokigxis en tiun
   novan domon.  
This seems like the most natural word order, largely because the pronoun
immediately follows its referent. If you wanted to emphasize that it was 
*he* who moved there, rather than some other candidate, you would recast
the sentence with the subject at the end.
   Jxus translokigxis en tiun novan domon li.

I confess that I cannot point to formal rules of focus [perhaps somebody can
post such...] so I am reporting observation, that is, description rather than
prescription.

Miko.


