Q/Clf in Thai

[cholthicha sudmuk]

Dear Peter,

I found the discussion about the Thai construction that is similar to the
one that you are working on in Warotamasikkhadit's paper
in 1995. He says that Thai has the phenomenon called 'Backward
Topicalization' as in (i).
(i) a. phoo   sie   kaangkeeng  soong  tau    maa     hay     phom
            father   buy  pants                two      CL    come   give     I
         'Father bought two pairs of pants and gave them to me.'
    b. phoo    sie    maa      hay     phom  kaangkeeng  soong  tau
       father buy  come   give     I      pants        two   CL
   'Father bought for me, two pairs of pants.'

Warotamasikkhadit indicates that when an argument is emphasized or
attention-centered, it can be moved to the end of a
sentence. As in (ib), the NP kaangkeeng  soong  tau   'two pairs of pants"
is moved to the end of a sentence.
The numeral and the classifier modifying the noun, but not the whole NP,
can be topicalized by moving them to the end of
the sentence too, as in (ii).
(ii) phoo   sie   kaangkeeng maa  hay  phom  soong  tau
           father  buy   pants             come give  I          two        CL
         'Father bought two pairs of pants for me.'

The sentence (ii) is similar to the sentences in 1) that you are working on
except that the whole NP (NP + number + classifier)
  is in the object position.
[ Your sentences are:
1)  a.  dek   ni      (thuk/sii) khon pai rong rian
          child DX:near (all/four) CLF  go  school ('khon' must refer to
humans)
          "(all) these (four) children are going to school"

        b. dek    ni   pai    rong rian  (thuk/sii) khon
           "these children are (all/*four) going to school"   ]

Moreover, the numeral and the classifier modifying the noun can also be
moved to the middle of the sentence to show
the lesser degree of topicalization because the primary emphasis is on hay
phom 'giving me' as in (iii).
(iii) phoo   sie   kaangkeeng  maa    soong  tau  hay   phom
    father   buy  pants         come    two   CL   give  I
    'Father bought two pairs of pants and gave them to me.'

This discussion is in Warotamasikkhadit 's paper in 1995:
Warotamasikkhadit, Udom. 1995. Fronting and backing topicalization in Thai.
Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on
Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics at the University of Virginia,
Charlottesville, VA.

I also have more information about your sentences in 1). The demonstrative
adjective nii  'this' in 1a. should be after the whole NP
like dek dek thung sii khon nii  'all these four children' and it can stick
with the number and classifier at the end of the sentence too, as in (iv).
(v) dek dek     pay   roong rian   thung  sii   khon  nii
     children     go    school       all    four   CL   this

I hope that these informations might be helpful for your analysis.
Best,
Chol

Cholthicha  Sudmuk
----------------------------------
Department of Linguistics
University of Texas at Austin

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