Re: How many subjects are allowed?

Bart Mathias wrote: 
muchan wrote:

[...]
About the subject of 好きです, if you conceive it as "to like"
in English, 私 seems subject, but 好き in Japanese is like
"aimable" "lovable" "being fond of" so in (my) first sentense,
the grammatical subject of 好き is 雨が降っている時.


But as I'm sure I've pointed out before, it's not quite that simple; the meaning of 私 plays a role in that sentence.

Consider that, foolish person that I am, I don't like nattou. But I know my daughter likes it, and there are 423,786--maybe even more--people in Japan who do like it.

Can I truthfully say 納豆が好きだ?

If (私) is not the topic of that sentence, then what is it?


....who said "私 is not the topic of that sentence"? ...

In the quote I said "About the _subject_ of 好きです"...

Can something be topic if it could not in other circumstances be subject?

誰が納豆が好きか。

僕が好きだ。

I have the feeling that last sentence does not mean "I am lovable." I think that would be 僕は愛さるべし or something (probably not true anyway).


the Topic(s) can be the subject, the object, or whatever else...
Or more exactly, the subject, the object, or whatever else, can be the topic(s).

If you want to say that "ga" is used with something wichi is not subject,
(possible, IMHO) or anything that can be topic (revolutional view, IMHO)
the discussion will be very interesting...

For what it's worth, that's why my version of Japanese phrase structure grammar allows predicates to be rewritten as predications (combinations of subjects and predicates), so (納豆が好きなのは(僕が(納豆が好きだ))).
(Every declarative or interrogative sentence also has a topic.)

Bart 

If "implicit topic" or "unsaid topic" is topic, or "empty topic" is also
topic, I can easily agree you, that every sentence has a topic.


(Also works for Japanese versions of "It's Japan where it's men who's life spans are short.") 

.... are long, but just shorter than women...


muchan
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Preference
    ... > Bart Mathias wrote: ... but I let the 私は overrule that rule. ... "I am going to use Japanese, but you may use English if you prefer." ...
    (sci.lang.japan)
  • Re: Romanji help
    ... It seems to me I heard somewhere that Bart Mathias wrote in article ... >> so on this forum we were discussing in English about Japanese using romaji. ...
    (sci.lang.japan)
  • Re: [tanaka] nakattarauni ?
    ... Bart Mathias wrote: ... in negative contexts so it seems odd that here it is used ... I wonder if Japanese and English are that different? ...
    (sci.lang.japan)
  • Re: URL: Logic, reflected by Japanese culture, in a, ah, puzzle.
    ... >> Bart Mathias wrote: ... Did Japanese actually say (or have they ever ... grammar for the historical effect, but in fact pronouncing Japanese very ...
    (sci.lang.japan)
  • Re: New Wikipedia article "Japanese language classification"
    ... Also User:Squidley said Bart Mathias was one of his professors, so I'm guessing Squidley and Godfrey are the same individual, and possibly someone you know. ... Apparently he or they claim to be historical linguists studying the origin of Japanese. ... But I should warn you that I was blocked from editing Wikipedia for putting the true name of one editor in a Wikipedia page. ... I know a lot of people who are registered in databases of researchers similar to this one, and most of them don't know anything about it themselves. ...
    (sci.lang.japan)