English word order: SVO
Tagalog word order: VSO
Tagalog VSO Kumain ang bata
ng mangga sa silid.
ate the child
a mango in room
English SVO The child ate a banana in the room.
English Information Focus:
use stress, pronouns, or word order (end focus)
- The child ate a mango in the room.
- Where did the child eat the mango?
- The child ate the mango in the room.
- or He ate it in the room.
- Who ate a mango in the
room?
- The child ate the
mango in the room.
- or The child did.
- Emphatic focus stress (word order--cleft sentences)
- Where he ate the mango
was in the room.
- Who ate the mango in
the room was the child.
- What he ate in the
room was a mango.
- It was in the
room that he ate the mango.
- It was the child who
ate the mango in the room.
- It was the mango that
he ate in the room
Tagalog Information
Focus: mark the verb and the focus noun
“Who ate a mango in the room?”
Kumain ang
bata ng
mangga sa silid.
Ate the
child the/a mango in the/a room.
“The child ate the mango in the room.”
“What did the child eat in the room?”
Kinain
ng bata ang mangga sa silid.
Was eaten the/a child the mango in the/a room
“The child ate the mango in the room.”
“Where did the child eat the mango?”
Kinainan
ng bata ng mangga ang silid.
Was eaten in the/a child the/a mango the room.
“The child ate the mango in the room.”