ba'e phrase

[MorphemeAddict@wmconnect.com]

In a message dated 2004-10-21 5:21:25 AM Eastern Daylight Time, ecartis@digitalkingdom.org writes:


> --- Martin Bays wrote:
> > {le ba'e mi speni}, {ba'e le mi speni} and {le mi ba'e speni}
> > correspond
> > respectively to "*my* wife", "*my wife*" and "my *wife*".
>
> {le ba'e mi speni} and {le mi ba'e speni}, yes.
>
> But {ba'e le mi speni} doesn't really have a direct correspondence
> in English. It's more like "*the* wife of mine". {ba'e} emphasizes 
> the very next word, not the following phrase. Since the 
> distinguishing feature of {le} is specificity, that's what {ba'e} 
> would be emphasizing here: not just any old wife of mine but *the* 
> one(s) I have in mind.
>
> mu'o mi'e xorxes


How would one emphasize the whole phrase then?  Using parentheses?  Yuck.

stevo