•
rSm
hma marks a phrase, and indicates topic of sentence, usually the
subject in Formal Burmese and sometimes in Colloquial Burmese Okell and Allott 2001:171.
•
rS
hma. marks a noun as subject of sentence, when the subject is a personal
agent or an inanimate noun standing for a personal agent. It is more common in Formal Burmese but can occur in Colloquial Burmese. In this usage it is
equivalent to Formal Burmese
u
ka., but in Colloquial Burmese
u
ka. has
more contrastive force Okell and Allott 2001:165. •
rl
mu marks a phrase as slightly contrastive with some other phrase in Formal
Burmese Okell and Allott 2001:154.
•
wm
ta marks a verb as nominalized and as the topic of the sentence in
Colloquial Burmese only Okell and Allott 2001:74.
These various particles are well illustrated in Okell and Allott 2001, but what is far from clear is why they are used, how they function in specific contexts, and what kind
of information the notion of topicalization encompasses in Burmese. By examining whole texts the extensive linguistic context by which such notions as “given,” “new,”
“recoverable,” etc. can be factored into the function of the particles. Discourse analysis also lays out the hierarchical structural units by which textual information is organized.
Particles have been found to signal information function on multiple levels from clause, sentence, paragraph, section, and the discourse macrostructure as a whole. Many
previously inexplicable particles have been found to function in tightly organized and beautiful ways through discourse analysis Longacre 1996; Longacre and Woods 1976–
1977; Person 2000.
Assuming the notion of topic applies to both sentence and discourse levels, and assuming topic is both informational and grammatical, the present study examines the
role of topic as it relates to three particles
onf
sany,
u
ka. and
udk
kui found in one
particular text. By restricting the analysis to one text, it is possible to examine more fully the inter-relationships and dependencies across higher level structures, which may not be
present in other texts where these particles appear. The basis of generalization of particle function then is restricted in scope to specific texts or text types and structural contexts.
What is gained is greater explanatory power regarding why a particular particle is used in a particular linguistic situation.
5.3.2 Types of Information Relating to Topic
There are three distinctions important with regard to the notion of topic in Burmese. The first of these is Information Status, which is whether the information is regarded as
“new” or “old” information. This distinction is what some analysts have referred to as a cognitive operation analogous to the reader opening a new file for new information, or
for old or already known information noting whether the file which already exists for this information is open and active, or is open but not active not in immediate awareness. A
more contemporary, computer analogy might be where a filewindow exists and is open old information in a window. If it is visible from the desktop, it may require just a mild
reference in the text zero or pronominal. On the other hand, if it is buried or actually closed, somewhat more effort is required to retrieve and bring that file information into
focal view.
Information status has to do with the amount of cognitive effort required to activate information. This effort is mapped iconically to grammatical constructions that
serve to stimulate those cognitive operations. It is assumed that a more overt grammatical apparatus is required for information that is specific and stored away. That is, old
information that is inactive.
Burmese follows the tendency of most languages in that old information linearly precedes new information. Typically, in Burmese, new information occupies a position
immediately preceding the verb phrase that is to the far right. In a discourse, what is new and what is old information is normally recoverable from the immediately preceding text.
In spoken discourse, what is old is most often recoverable in the social and speech context. While this generalization is a function of the difference between written text and
oral discourse, it is nonetheless a tendency of text to map greater referential detail due to the presumed loss of information from the social and physical situation of a speech
event.
2
The following example from the National Day text illustrates the role of informational status across two sentences. New information in S1 is old information in
S3. 106 Information Status between National Day Sentences 1 and 3
S1
wefaqmifrkef: v qkwf
10 |uf aeh onf trsdK: om: aeh \zpf yg onf
[tan-hcaung- mun:
la. hcut] [10 rak
ne. sany] [a-myui: sa: ne. hprac pa sany] tazaungmon
month end 10 Clf-day day Nom
a- kind
son day happen Plt Nom [ national ]
‘The tenth day of the waning moon of the month of Tazaungmon is National Day
[new]
.’
2
The unsaid, inferred knowledge on the part of the writer to the reader can evoke a pleasant sense of satisfaction, humor, deeper relevance which brings a peculiar joy in reading creative writing. This same
inferential function can leave second-language readers of Burmese perplexed. While much that is inferred comes from a shared experience of the world and the expectations of cultural norms, the relation of
sentence arguments and adjuncts in Burmese is marked by postpositional particles, most of which have multiple or generalized functions. Understanding the functions of these particles opens up the world of
Burmese grammar, particularly for the second-language learner.
S3
trsdK: om: aeh
txdrf: trSwf t\zpf a[m
a\ym yGJ
a-myui: sa: ne. a-htim:
a-hmat a-hprac hau: prau: pwai:
a-kind son day
shape mark
occurrence preach
say show [ national ]
[commemoration] [ preaching ]
rsm: Sifh \y yGJ úydif yGJ rsm: udk úy vkyf
mya: hnang. pra. pwai:
pruing pwai:
mya: kui
pru. lup many Acc
display show compete show many
Ob do work
[ exhibit ] [ competition ]
usif: y ju yg onf
kyang: pa. kra. pa
sany spread
outward Pl-S
Plt Nom
[ celebrate ]
‘To commemorate National Day
[old]
there are various activities and celebrations of preaching, exhibitions and competitions.’
The second type of distinction necessary for topicalization in Burmese is
Information Focus. There are two types of information focus, the first is positional and the second is grammatical role.
Positional information relates to the linear, sentence-initial position of the principal arguments of the verb. Sentence-initial devices such as temporal or locative
linkage are excluded in information focus, since these devices relate to textual cohesion and background rather than focus. The following example demonstrates these positions,
labeled Pos 1, Pos 2, Pos 3, in the sentence. The head of the Burmese sentence is not the beginning but the end, not to the left but to the right. Thus, the numbered positions begin
right and proceed left, following a rather different sense of focus order than is expected in European languages. Burmese as head-final is left-branching and is felt by Burmese
speakers to ‘face’ toward the predicate. Greater Information Focus is given to the elements placed in Pos 1.
107 Example of Information Focus Temp-
oral POS 3
POS 2 POS 1
Predicate
S 6.
1920 \ynfhSpf
wGif TFvdyftpdk:|
u |efukefwUodkvf
udk zGifhvSpf|
ef pDpOf
onf`
1920 prany.
hnac twang
anggalip a- cui: ra. ka.
rankun takkasuil kui
hpwang. hlac ran
ci cany sany
1920 be- full year
Loc
English control have A
Rangoon university Ob
open open Pur
line-up line- up [arrange ]
Nom
‘In 1920, the English government arranged to open Rangoon University.’ Grammatical role is a parameter of Information Focus in a Burmese sentence.
Information Focus follows the animacyempathy hierarchy Silverstein 1976; Kuno 1976 and directly correlates with semantic and grammatical roles within the sentence. While
each of these three aspects interrelate, and although the semantic aspect of this parameter is more salient in Burmese, the choice is made here to focus on the grammatical in order
to build on Relational Grammar’s insights regarding promotion and demotion of grammatical roles in the sentence.
Animacy Empathy Hierarchy
Human Animal Instrument … Semantic Role
Agent Patient Benefactor Purpose Reason Result Grammatical Role
Subject Object Indirect Object Adjunct … Table 30. Hierarchy of animacy in relation to grammatical and semantic roles
Because Burmese normative word order is SOV, a natural prominence is accorded sentence arguments with the subject grammatical role. The problem of what is subject in
Burmese is beyond our scope at present, but will be regarded for the purposes here as the unspecified or unmentioned in a type of passive construction agent, the overt left-most,
non-oblique and non-object argument in a sentence. The casual observer may notice that subject is more a default role in relation to the other more overtly marked grammatical
roles.
If an argument of the verb in Burmese is promoted or demoted from its principal grammatical role, e.g., a subject being demoted to an oblique as it is in the English
passive construction, it is also thereby raised or lowered in focal prominence by grammatical promotion or demotion. Because agents are often unmentioned, default
prominence tends to fall on the patient. Un-demoted agents are mentioned for pragmatic purposes as we shall see in the following text analysis.
108 Example of Promotion and Demotion in English. Active: The man hit the cat.
Passive: The cat was hit [by the man]
[oblique demotion].
109 Example of Promotion and Demotion in Burmese ND 4.
Patient Temp Oblique
-Agent Instrument
Predicate
\refrmedkifiHo nf
1885 ckeSpfwGif tFvdyfwdkh vufatmufcH böodkh
usa|mufcJhyg onf`
mranma nuing-ngam
sany 1885 hku. hnac
twang anggalip tui. e
lak auk hkam bawa. sui.
kya. rauk hkai. pa sany
Burma country
NomTop 1885 Clf-gen year
Loc-in England Pl Pos
hand under Ug existence Pth
fall arrive Pr Plt NomSf
Burma in 1885 English
people’s came under
subjugation became
‘In 1885, Burma underwent the experience of effectively coming under English rule’. In Sentence ND4, the Patient is promoted to the grammatical pivot or in
Relational Grammar terms, to a 1. It is subject-like and is moderately prominent because of the demotion of the Agent to oblique. We shall see in the following sections that this
example is also salient for focus as we add further detail to how topical focus is manifest and used in this sample Burmese text.
The relative weight of focus or prominence in any one sentence in Burmese is a matter of the operation of all three parameters. In Sentence 5, the relative focal
prominence of the arguments is as follows: a informational status—the new information in Pos 1 is most salient, and then in information focus, b positional focus gives Pos 1
focus, and c grammatical role of the patient in Pos 3
3
is focal.
5.3.2.1 Summary of Information Devices
In summary, the three dimensions of focus in Burmese operate with regard to Information Status new and old and two types of Information Focus—position and grammatical
role. These are graphically summarized in table 31 with the asterisk representing the position with the highest salience in each dimension. Note that in an overall sense the
grammatical role of Agent balances the other two weights.
3
Pos 3 here is being used to refer to the farthest left position of a sentential argument, even though an individual sentence may have up to Pos 7 or 8. 109 demonstrates an embedded nominalized clause which
contains the demoted actant and thus increases the surface number of positions from the verb.
Table 31. Summary of information devices The value of factoring out different types of focus aids in understanding how
different postpositional particles in Burmese can each be labeled as topic yet function in relation to different types of informational prominence. Such a schema also validates the
natural, intuitive sense of prominence for different sentential arguments particularly in the more complex structures of expository text argumentation.
5.3.3 Figure-Ground in Relation to Information Devices