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Example 41-169
miɲa meʃiinntu
mee
isti poɖiyaas fuula kibotaa
miɲa
1sg
.
gen
meʃiin-ntu
machine-
loc
mee
foc
isti
this
poɖiyaas
children
fuula
flower
ki-botaa
nmlz
-put
It is on MY machine that these children are doing decorative stitching (lit. It is on MY machine that these children are putting flowers).
Comment:
The cleft interpretation comes from left dislocation of the focused constituent, presence of the focus marker /mee/, and the nominalized verb.
Type:
naturalistic spoken
Source:
Smith 1974-5
: 5295
Language:
Sri Lanka Portuguese
by
Ian R. Smith
cite
Datapoints:
Focusing of the noun phrase: Fronting with particle after focus
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