Tagalog (Three)

Hi Jud: I'm not a linguist, and I don't know 'copula' from 'spatula' ... ;-) But seriously, do I guess right that your study has to do with words that couple two or more sentences/phrases, and by themselves have barely anymeaning except perhaps "existence?" When studying Tagalog, one important thing to remember is that a sentence can have two basic forms that have no significant differences in meaning, or perhaps just a very slightly-perceptible difference in focus: what I call the "A-B" form and the "B-ay-A" form (where "ay" translates roughly into English as "is/was/are/were." Example: I am Filipino. Form A-B: "Pilipino ako." Form B-ay-A: "Ako ay Pilipino." (In informal Tagalog usage, "e" and "ay" are equivalent. Thus, some would pronounce or write the same sentence as "Ako e Pilipino.") Some Tagalog scholars would actually insist that "ay/e" does not really belong to any class of grammatically-functional words in the sense that "is/are/was/were" are. They would classify it in the category of a "sounded pause" -- like a sort of voiced comma or semi-colon, or "er", "uh/ah" whose only use is to aurally divide two linked phrases. That this argument has some validity is shown by the ff. example: "He talks this way and that; he ends up doing the same thing." This sentence could have two equivalent forms -- "B, A" and "B-ay-A" "Pasikut-sikot pa siya ng salita, ganoon din pala ang gagawin." "Pasikut-sikot pa siya ng salita ay/e ganoon din pala ang gagawin." In street language, for example, you would more commonly hear: "Ako, Pilipino. Ikaw, Amerikano. Siya, Hapones." (I'm Filipino. You're American. He's Japanese.) -- rather than the more stilted, textbook-sounding "Ako ay Pilipino. Ikaw ay Amerikano. Siya ay Hapones." Hope this short note is right up your aisle. Jun V.