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Pronouns & Basic Sentence Structure

Personal pronouns, ang vs. ng forms, basic predicate-first word order
Enclitic hierarchy: formal account
ordered set of pronominal clitics in Tagalog
varies
Sequence: negation > aspect particles na/pa > ba > pronoun enclitics
Ang vs. ay: transformational analysis
ay as topic-fronting or inversion marker
ay
Ay marks movement of topic to sentence-final position in some analyses
Long-distance dependencies
gap-filler relationships across embedded clauses
varies
Ang babaeng alam kong kumain... = The woman who I know ate...
Control and raising predicates
gusto, dapat, kailangan as syntactic classes
varies
Gusto kong kumain = I want to eat (control: implicit subject of eat = I)
Null subjects and pro-drop
Tagalog is a pro-drop language
varies
Kumain na = Someone has already eaten; subject recoverable from context
Full discourse particle system
na, pa, nga, ba, naman, pala, kaya, raw/daw
varies
Each particle adds pragmatic or evidential nuance not expressible lexically
Evidential particle: raw/daw
reportedly / they say (hearsay evidential)
raw / dow
Pumunta raw siya = He reportedly went; marks hearsay information source
Expectation particle: pala
so it turns out / I see now (realization marker)
pah-lah
Ganyan pala = So that is how it is (marks new realization or discovery)
Naman: contrast and softening particle
on the other hand / come on now
nah-mahn
Sige naman = Come on; Ikaw naman = You on the other hand
Kaya: conjecture and causal particle
I wonder / that is why
kah-yah
Bakit kaya? = I wonder why; Kaya pala! = That is why!