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Focus and Topic in Languages
All languages have a way of stressing which part of a clause the speaker is focusing on, which parts they wish to stress. Some examples from English:
I sent him a letter (I, the actor, is the topic)
A letter was sent to him by me (The letter, the patient, is the topic)
He was sent a letter by me (He, the recipient, is the topic)
All these sentences mean the same thing; what is different is which constituent is being stressed.
Trigger Systems
A trigger system is a way of marking which part of a clause the speaker wants to stress, which part they want to be the topic. In a trigger system, the topic is marked as the trigger, and then what role the topic plays in the action is marked on the verb. This is different from a case system. Some examples from Tagalog, probably the best known trigger language:
Bumasa ng aklat ang tao.
Read.ACTOR.FOCUS.PRES NONTRIG book TRIG person.
The person reads a book.
Binasa ng tao ang aklat.
Read.PATIENT.FOCUS.PAST NONTRIG person TRIG book.
A book was read by a person.
Notice that in both of these sentences, the topic (the person in the first sentence, the book in the second sentence) is preceding by a trigger marker (ang). The other arguments to the verb, which are not the topic, are preceded by a different marker (ng, pronounced nang). The verbs bumasa and binasa both come from basa, to read, but they are marked to show both their tense/aspect and what role the trigger plays in the action.
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