From: john.w.kennedy@gmail.com   
      
   On 2015-07-12 00:15:33 +0000, Michelle Bottorff said:   
      
   > John W Kennedy  wrote:   
   >   
   >>> ...But I have to say that a language in which you can't tell if someone   
   >>> is saying "People, dogs bite them" or "People bite dogs" sounds very   
   >>> impractical.   
   >>   
   >> Well, topic-prominent languages normally also have some kind of   
   >> accusative marker, so it would be like "People-ems dogs bite" vs.   
   >> "people bite dog-ems". One standard example is Hungarian.   
   >   
   > Yes, I don't have a problem with that, it seems quite logical.   
   >   
   > But it says in the article that there is one language where they DON'T.   
   > (Not Hungarian, obviously.  From somewhere in Oceana, I think it was,)   
   >   
   > Acording to some scolar's analysis, in that language you really can't   
   > tell the difference.  It seems improbable that the situation is really   
   > left that unclear.  I would think that they would need to be able to   
   > tell the difference fairly often.  They must use a helper phrase, or   
   > clarifying clause, or something, surely?   
      
   Or context, or non-verbal cues, or even just likelihood.   
      
   --   
   John W Kennedy   
   If Bill Gates believes in "intelligent design", why can't he apply it   
   to Windows?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)