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Re: terminators



>>>>> "Robin" == Robin Turner <robin@BILKENT.EDU.TR> writes:

    Robin> The closest
    Robin> I've found is Chinese, which employs a few terminator-like
    Robin> structures, e.g. "yinwei ...  suoyi" for causation
    Robin> (normally rendered into English as "because ...  therefore
    Robin> ...").

This is not   a  good example  of  terminators.   That's  because  the
"yin1wei4  A,  suo3yi3 B" can  be replaced  by  "A, suo3yi3 B" without
removing  the causual relationship.  Moreover,  the same idea can also
be rendered as "B, yin1wei4 A".

So, the use of the phrase connectives "yin1wei4" and "suo3yi3" both at
the same time is just an example of reinforcement, which is frequently
found in Chinese.


For examples of terminators,  how about postpositional languages, such
as  Korean and Japanese?   Aren't   the postpositions terminators   by
themselves?


--
Lee Sau Dan                     'u&u40(Big5)                    ~{@nJX6X~}(HZ)
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| http://www.cs.hku.hk/~sdlee                        e-mail: sdlee@cs.hku.hk |
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