Gestalt, and is manifest by a series of overtly
udk
kui-marked objects, the repeated
discourse topic of National Day. A binary view of information structure has been presented here. When the
complement of
udk
kui, that is
u
ka., is used to indicate topic as Figure, then
udk
kui
plays a background role in relation to strengthening the distinctness of the opposite side of the gestalt. Depending on which gestalt one uses, Transitive or Absolutive Sentence
Gestalt,
udk
kui has a role in topicality.
5.3.5 Summary of Topic and Information Status
The topicalizing and thematic functions of postpositional particles
onf
sany,
u
ka., and
udk
kui have been examined from a discourse point of view within one expository text,
National Day. These particles were found to function beyond the sentence as discourse stage markers of argument structure:
onf
sany marking the background theme for
discourse sections,
u
ka. and
udk
kui as dominant versus subordinate social status
markers for participants, are signals for role reversals within the textual plot of embedded narrative discourse, and are used to shift transitivity and the Figure-Ground gestalt from
Transitive to Absolutive. From a sentence perspective of Burmese grammar, particle selection of sentential topic and theme initially appear to be somewhat random. Discourse
considerations demonstrate a motivated, cognitively perceptive, and language learner- accessible role of what has been labeled topic in Burmese.
5.4 Summary of Discourse Analysis
Ontological structure of both National Day and Snake Bite texts were found to structure differently from rhetorical structure. The direction of branching differs, with ontological
structure being left-branching and rhetorical structure demonstrating a propensity for right-branching trees.
Also, Expository and Narrative text as a whole demonstrate different information structures of Figure-Ground relations. At the whole text level, Expository text displays an
Absolutive Ground-Figure relation see section 5.3.3 as shown in figure 64 for the National Day text.
Figure 64. Absolutive Ground-Figure relations of ND Text
Successive layers of ontological nominals demonstrate different Figure-Ground relations. Section one S1-3 is in a Ground relation to Figure of section two S4-9.
Likewise section three S10-13 is Ground to section four S14-16 as Figure. Together section one and two are conjoined as a higher order ontological nominal and stand in
relation to the subsequent conjoined nominal of sections three and four as Ground-Figure. Finally the whole text repeats the structure of Ground-Figure with the entire
onf
sany-
marked section serving as Ground in relation to the final section of exhortation S17-18 which serves as the Figure in relation to the text as a whole. The whole Expository text
demonstrates an Absolutive organization of information with Figure being structurally final.
Narrative text, on the other hand, marks information structure in a Transitive Figure-Ground pattern for the text as a whole. Figure 65 demonstrates the relations of
Figure-Ground to the various sections of the Snake Bite text.
Figure 65. Transitive Figure-Ground relations of SB text
Oddly, the relation of Figure to Ground is reverse between the two halves of the narrative action line. The only explanation for this is that despite the attention to the
source of action with increased transitivity
u
ka.-marking the end purpose of the text
is to move toward statements of resolution with the goal of action
udk
kui-marking. The
final off-line section of the text demonstrates a return focus toward the action line as Figure.
It should be noted that the structure of both the Expository and the Narrative texts images a similar structure to the Burmese sentence. The major portion of the text is the
propositional content and the final portion is speaker or observer comment about the content or the speech situationaction situation. Thus the structure of the ontological
Sentence both sentence and text is represented in figure 66 as two-part: Propositional Content and Observer Comment.
Figure 66. Ontological structure of sentence sentence and text
184
6 Conclusion
…this issue of paradigm choice can never be unequivocally settled by logic and experiment alone.
-Thomas Kuhn 1970:93
6.1 Summary
