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Dear Peter,<br><br>
I found the discussion about the Thai construction that is similar to the
one that you are working on in Warotamasikkhadit's paper<br>
in 1995. He says that Thai has the phenomenon called 'Backward
Topicalization' as in (i).<br>
(i) a. phoo sie <i>kaangkeeng soong
tau</i> maa
hay phom<br>
father buy
pants
two CL come
give I<br>
'Father bought two pairs of
pants and gave them to me.'<br>
b. phoo sie
maa hay phom
<i>kaangkeeng soong tau</i> <br>
father buy come
give I
pants two CL<br>
'Father bought for me, two pairs of pants.'<br><br>
Warotamasikkhadit indicates that when an argument is emphasized or
attention-centered, it can be moved to the end of a<br>
sentence. As in (ib), the NP <i>kaangkeeng soong
tau</i> 'two pairs of pants" is moved to the end of a
sentence.<br>
The numeral and the classifier modifying the noun, but not the whole NP,
can be topicalized by moving them to the end of<br>
the sentence too, as in (ii).<br>
(ii) phoo sie <i>kaangkeeng </i>maa
hay phom <i>soong tau<br>
</i> father
buy
pants
come give I
two CL<br>
'Father bought two pairs of
pants for me.'<br><br>
The sentence (ii) is similar to the sentences in 1) that you are working
on except that the whole NP (NP + number + classifier)<br>
is in the object position.<br>
[ Your sentences are:<br>
1) a. dek ni
(thuk/sii) khon pai rong rian<br>
child DX:near (all/four)
CLF go school ('khon' must refer to humans)<br>
"(all) these (four)
children are going to school"<br><br>
b. dek
ni pai rong rian (thuk/sii)
khon<br>
"these
children are (all/*four) going to school" ]<br><br>
Moreover, the numeral and the classifier modifying the noun can also be
moved to the middle of the sentence to show <br>
the lesser degree of topicalization because the primary emphasis is on
<u>hay phom</u> 'giving me' as in (iii).<br>
(iii) phoo sie <i>kaangkeeng </i>maa
<i> soong tau</i> hay phom<br>
father buy
pants
come two CL give I<br>
'Father bought two pairs of pants and gave them to
me.'<br><br>
This discussion is in Warotamasikkhadit 's paper in 1995:<br>
Warotamasikkhadit, Udom. 1995. Fronting and backing topicalization in
Thai. Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on<br>
Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics at the University of Virginia,
Charlottesville, VA.<br><br>
I also have more information about your sentences in 1). The
demonstrative adjective <i>nii </i>'this' in 1a. should be after
the whole NP <br>
like <i>dek dek thung sii khon nii</i> 'all these four children'
and it can stick with the number and classifier at the end of the
sentence too, as in (iv).<br>
(v) dek dek pay roong
rian thung sii khon nii<br>
children go
school all
four CL this<br><br>
I hope that these informations might be helpful for your analysis.<br>
Best,<br>
Chol<br>
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Cholthicha Sudmuk<br>
----------------------------------<br>
Department of Linguistics<br>
University of Texas at Austin<br><br>
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