Emphasis

[Delight]

Perhaps these phrases could be translated to give true understanding.

-Underlined word is emphasized in English(further explanation in brackets)

THE MAN JUST STOLE THE MONEY (the man did it alone)

THE MAN JUST STOLE THE MONEY (it was not acquired using any other method)

THE MAN JUST STOLE THE MONEY (he ignored the jewels)

How is it dealt with in Thai

[AjarnPasa]

Yes, in short, emphasis does exist in Thai. But I get the point you're making. Emphasis in English is generally created with a falling tone (and incidentally this very fact puts the lie to the idea held by some that speakers of non-tonal languages can't hear tones), and so to emphasise in the same way could change the meaning of the word being emphasised.

One of the ways this is dealt with this is the use of emphasis auxiliaries or intensifiers such as เลย and สิ

The other way to make this clear is through correct syntax. In English we can be sloppier with our syntax while speaking because the emphasis helps clarify what we mean.

I get the impression (and I am happy to be corrected here) that spoken Thai relies more heavily than English on correct syntax to ensure clarity. Much as your examples, as written, require explanation because the syntax is not correct for a written text in the first and third examples.

I would render each as follows:

Just the man stole the money. แค่ผู้ชายที่ขโมยเงิน

The man just stole the money. ผู้ชายแค่ขโมยเงินเลย *

and

The man stole just the money. ผู้ชายขโมยแค่เงิน

* Even though this is syntactically correct it still has me wondering whether the man just up and stole the money, the cheek blighter without so much as a by your leave, or whether he only came by the money through theft and did not legally acquire any part of it.

Anyway, that was a very roundabout way of saying that emphasis exists in Thai but syntax is important too :-P

[Delight]

Thanks for your comprehensive reply.

I suspect that you are correct about syntax correctness to convey the precise meaning

I would like to know more about เลย and สิ. In the context of spoken Thai how would they be applied?

( I think that it is just more than application of falling tone by English speakers. I think it is also about vowel length.

So In Example 1 the มัน becomes ม่าน -falling tone

Example 2 the โสทะล becomes โสทล falling tone

Example 3 มูนิ becomes มูนี mid-falling tone)

The example of emphasis that I did not refer to is:

HE MAN JUST STOLE THE MONEY (it happened 2 minutes ago)

maybe this is correct สองนาทีก่อนผู้ชายขโมยเงิน

[AjarnPasa]

No worries...

The word for 'just' in that last sense would be เพิ่ง. While 'just' in English covers both meanings, you need different words in Thai แค่ = just as in only; เพ่ง = just as in a moment ago. So: ผู้ชายขเพิ่งโมยเงิน

For more on เลย and สิ have a look here http://www.thai2english.com/dictionary/1397063.html and here http://www.thai2english.com/dictionary/1407934.html

I get the feeling, and I'm going on observation rather than any hard knowledge here, that tones and vowel length do change with emphasis but that it doesn't matter too much as context clarifies any potential misunderstanding. Consider the use of ม้ัย in spoken Thai in place of the written ไหม. My guess is that this spelling came about to represent a colloquial change in pronunciation, rather than the other way around. More on colloquial spellings here http://www.thai-language.com/id/142459

Edited April 13, 2012 by AjarnPasa