5min chapter

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Conlangery #53: Topicalization

Conlangery Podcast

CHAPTER

Lao Grammar - Topic Marking

Lao has overt topic marking, the topic can either appear at the right edge or the left edge of the rest of the clause. Almost any role case or prepositional that you might can imagine in a clause can be topical ized,. But at the same time, the relationship may have no recognizable role at all which is a lot harder to think about. It limits the statement you're about to make to a particular domain, but that's all. There's one Burmese language called Lissu where the sentence goes, people topic, dog bite. So topicalization plus pro drop can give you all sorts of fun.

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