Debate (Doug Barr): Clefting and bleaching

[Elizabeth J. Pyatt]

From: Doug Barr <dbarr at attcanada.ca>
To: The Celtic Linguistics List <CELTLING at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>

>
>>  From: Caoimhin O Donnaile <caoimhin at smo.uhi.ac.uk>
>>  To: The Celtic Linguistics List <CELTLING at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
>>  Subject: Re: Debate (Cecil Ward): Clefting and bleaching
>>
>>  Someone said:
>>
>>>>   No topicalisation function, non-contrastive, no emphasis
>>>>   c)      'S   e      tidsear    a  tha ann am Pat.
>>>>            COP 3sg teacher REL is in in Pat
>>>>            "Pat is a teacher."
>>>>   A straightforward statement.
>>>>
>>>>   Notice that the last example (c) has the exact same syntactic structure
>>>>   (b). However, I would say that (c) is "unmarked" in pragmatic terms.
>>>
>>  It isn't very marked, but it is more marked than:
>>            Tha Pat 'na tidsear.
>>  which is completely unmarked.
>>
>>  You are right that no-one would say "Is tidsear Pat" except in
>>  very unusual circumstances.
>
I was told that sentences like that sound "neonach," "weird/funny," and
sound like they've been lifted from poetry. Apparently the equivalent
structure is still valid in Irish, though I'm no expert there.

Although, there is sometimes an implication with sentences like "Tha Pat 'na
tidsear" that Pat is a teacher by virtue of having become one; she wasn't
always a teacher. When I attended a party for a friend's "Gaelic majority"
(age 27), there was a lot of "tha thu 'nad fhear a-nisd" "you are a man now"
and suchlike...

Doug (who lurks much and posts little)

--
o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

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