Essays on Writing and Language in Honor - Sino-Platonic Papers

Schnffestschhnfr: &says in Honor of John DeFrancis
3.1 Placement of the Pause Particles
One of the grammatical qualities that the primary topic has is that it can be
followed by one of the pause particles, a (s), & , me and E. The same particles can also
follow a locative or temporal appearing between the primary topic and the main verb, as
exemplified by (14) and (15).
(14) ta zuotian meiyou lai.
he yesterday PARTnot come
'Speaking of him, yesterday (he) didn't come. '
(15) ta zai Meiguo ya you hen duo pengyou.
he in America PART have very many friend
'Speaking of him, in America (he) has many friends.'
Since a ause particle in Chinese occurs between the topic and the comment part of
a sentence, (147 and (15) indicate clearly that zuotian Lyesterdayl in (14) and zai Meiguo
'in America' in (15) are perceived by native speakers as belonging to the topic part of the
sentence involved.
3.2 Definiteness in Reference
Like the primary topic, a temporal or a locative occurring between the primary
topic and the main verb is definite in reference in most cases as exemplified by (16).
(16) Li Xiaojie zuotian cheng-li you shi.
Li Miss yesterday town-LOC have business
'Speaking of Miss Li, yesterday in town she had business.'
It is clear that the temporal zuotian 'yesterday' and the locative chengli 'in town' in (16)
are both definite. There are, however, two minor points that need to be taken care of in
this connection. First, if you 'EXIST' is analyzed as an indicator showing that the
following NP is indefinite but specific, i.e., its reference is identifiable to the speaker but
not to the hearer, then we have to allow for cases where the temporal or locative expression
involved is indefinite but specific. Compare (17) with (16).
(17) Li Xiaojie you yi-tian jin cheng lai kan wo.
Li Miss EXIST one-day enter town come see me
'Speaking of Miss Li, one day (she) came to town to see me.'
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