(^14) ROBERT D. VAN VALIN, JR.
particle" ?a, as in (e). The contrast in the discourse functions of phrases in
the two positions is illustrated by the following text excerpt (Aissen
1987:158).
(5) [Something had landed at the foot of the tree, they went to look.
There was a straw mat. "Hell, what could it be? Come on, let's
untie the straw mat!" the two men said to each other. They
untied it. You know what? —
a. Tzeb san-andrex la te 0-s-ta-ik ?un.
girl San Andreas CL there 3ABs-3ERG-find-PL CL
"A San Andreas girl they found there."
b. ?a ti tzeb san-andrex ?un-e, ?i-0-y-ik-ik
TOP DEF girl San Andreas CL-DEF ASP-3ABs-3ERG-take-PL
la ech'el ?un.
CL away CL
"The San Andreas girl, they took her with them."
In (5a) tzeb san-andrex "a San Andreas girl" is a piece of unexpected new
information and is the major focus of the assertion, and consequently it
must occur clause-internally in order to be within the domain of the IF
operator. It is preverbal but is not set off by a pause and is not marked by
the topic marker ?a, and accordingly it is in the PCS. In (b), on the other
hand, it is marked by ?a and set off by a pause, and in addition, it has
already been introduced as a significant participant in the context. There
fore here it is in the LDP.
Germanic languages like Icelandic which exhibit the much discussed
"V/2 constraint" (i.e. the finite verb must be in second position in the
clause); Maling & Zaenen (1981) provide syntactic evidence for the con
trast between LDP and PCS. When something other than the subject
appears in clause-initial position in Icelandic, subject-finite verb inversion is
obligatory, so that the finite verb will occur in second position in the clause.
If the PCS is clause-internal and the LDP is not, then a phrase in the PCS
but not the LDP should trigger inversion, and this is exactly what happens.
In the examples from Maling & Zaenen in (6), the subject is underlined and
the finite verb in boldface.
(6) a. Hún hafdi unnid ad brúarsmídi í sumar.
she(N) had worked at bridge-building in summer
"She worked at bridge-building in the summer."
singke
(singke)
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