Re: Verb-second ... verb-penultimate languages?

>
> I'm actually not meaning this a criticism so much as a query.  Do
> clauses count as topics, especially one like the above?
>
In some languages they can do, or at least behave very similarly. An
example is in Lisu, where the same marker nya both marks NPs as topic
and also marks many conditional clauses (and background information, as
in your example). This is because conditions and background information
have much in common with topical referents in the fact that they tend to
be well established and, as it were, "background" information rather
than new asserted information. Example:

zathyi-u nwu satyi-a nya ati li gh@-a
orphan-VOC you hide-DEC TOP little return give-IMP

Orphan, as for you hiding it, return it
= Orphan, if you have hid it, return it

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