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<font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">OK, that being the case,
that seems to be the type of sentence that controls for
topicalization enough to clarify the claim about VS order being
impossible. The claim applies only to what happens after the
topic.</font> If this line of reasoning is correct, then in
sentences that appear to have VS order, there should be nonmanuals
that would indicate that the V was topicalized. Does anyone know if
that prediction is correct?<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">Albert Bickford
SIL International (Mexico program and Signed Language Leadership Team)
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:albert_bickford@sil.org">albert_bickford@sil.org</a>
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On 2011/03/06 9:18 PM, Adam Frost wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:B22AD9AA-A16B-42D5-84A8-49C9CD922765@frostvillage.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">I wasn't planning on saying anything on the matter, but as a native signer the sentence RECENTLY, EAT-FINISH DADDY to follow a VS structure feels wrong. The only way I can see DADDY being a subject in this sentence is if it were a rhetorical statement. I don't know if that would mean it's still a VS structure with that way of signing, but I don't think it would be.
Adam
On Mar 6, 2011, at 6:22 AM, "Dan Parvaz" <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:dparvaz@GMAIL.COM"><dparvaz@GMAIL.COM></a> wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
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<pre wrap=""> topic_____
RECENTLY, EAT-FINISH DADDY.
</pre>
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<pre wrap="">
I have no "instincts", but years of observation have me thinking that if the above
is an example of a VS structure, then it is infelicitious. It is possible to construe
it as such, to find a context in which it can be so, but I'll bet the temptation
would be to interpret that as "Not that long ago, I ate my father." That this
sentence might be as likely, or more so, than the VS interpretation should say
something about the former interpretation's likelihood. Or about me, but that's a
little more disturbing.
<soapbox>
This is one more reason why we need a good ASL corpus, preferably including
spontaneous dialogue and not simply those utterances we wheedle out of our
consultants. Then we may have some idea of the distribution of these
constructions.
</soapbox>
-Dan.
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<pre wrap="">
</pre>
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