The components of a noun phrase are pronouns or determiners, quantifiers, participial constructs, nouns, and relative clauses. The head word for each of these but the last takes the attributive ending. The last head word takes either a case ending or the copular ending. Note that the head word of a participial construct is the participial verb form and that of a relative clause is the clause terminator pronoun; otherwise, the component is the head word.
deko blankal doaga "ten white dogs"
The partitive construction consists of a noun phrase with a quantifier after the noun specifying the cardinality of some part of the referent specified by the rest of the noun phrase (which is implicitly definite and plural).
deko blankal doago tetra "four of the ten white dogs"
An aggregate noun phrase consists of 2 or more noun phrases separated by the particle ko. Each noun phrase takes either singular or plural form. Any index marking appears only on the last phrase.
keata ko doagis Joan habi. "The cats and the dog belong to John."
The components of a clause are the verb phrase, the arguments, and any adverbs, secondary predicates, or adjunct clauses. An argument may be a noun phrase or a complement clause. The order of the components is mostly determined by pragmatics, although complement clauses normally appear last. Most of the time, a verb or adposition's arguments precede it; placing an argument after the verb will typically contrastively focus it.
Toam vitri frakta.
"Tom broke the window."
vitri frakta Toam.
"It was Tom who broke the window."
Reciprocal verbs take a single aggregate or plural argument.
cilubixtu.
"We love each other."
dama noaudaxtu.
"The women didn't hear each other."
keat ko doagif vidaxtu.
"The cat and the dog looked at each other."
Joan ko Marxi keri vidertu.
"John and Marxha wanted to see each other."
saaudaxtupu, sakita.
"Having heard each other, they left."
There are 2 kinds of secondary predicates: resultatives and depictives. Resultatives represent the resulting state of the host verb's patientive or reflexive argument (including implicitly reflexive agents) while depictives represent the status of either agentive or patientive argument at the time of the host's action (whichever makes more sense).
Static verbs are most often used as resultatives and syntactical depictives and they most often take the stative aspect, which is marked identically to the retrospective aspect of dynamic verbs.
Joan karni krudo manja.
"John ate the meat raw."
Joan nudo karni manja.
"John ate the meat nude."
Marxi metal planai kusa.
"Marsha pounded the metal flat."
In a definition clause, there are 2 phrases: a patientive phrase representing the term defined and a copular phrase representing the definition.
Fredi cike. "Fred is a child."
The same construction is used for compound tenses; a participle is used as the head of the defining phrase. Example:
ikura. "He ran."
i kurale. "He has run."
ivida. "He saw."
i vidale. "He has seen."
Time other than simple present must be supplied by an adverb.
An identity clause is structured like a definition clause except that the copular phrase must be definite.
A relative clause begins with the relative pronoun y- (R-) and ends with the clause terminator d- (T-). The relative pronoun takes the number of the head noun within the relative clause and the clause terminator takes the number of the phrase within the clause if final and the attributive form otherwise.
cile vitro yi Joan frakta di.
"This is the window John broke."
damo yi tividam di midicam.
"The woman who saw you told me."
qu cile hospitalo yif Joan afera di?
"Is this the hospital they took John to?"
hero yiy mam miauda di juvne.
"The man whose mother I heard is young."
There are 2 kinds of complement clauses. The 1st kind contains either an infinitive if coreferential or a subjunctive mood finite verb if not.
Joan keri bo elefantis videk.
"John wants to see this elephant."
mikeri si tivide.
"I want you to see it."
The 2nd kind contains an indicative mood (past, present, or future) verb. If it precedes the matrix clause, it's terminated by ka, the patientive form of the clause terminator. The tense of the complement clause is relative. With matrix verbs of perception, the present tense indicates direct evidentiality while the past or future indicates indirect evidentiality.
mivida Joan vitri frakti.
"I saw John breaking the window."
mivida Joan vitri frakta.
"I saw that John had broken the window."
keat kas danti di Marxi dica.
"Marsha said that the cat was in the house."
Embedded questions are constructed like non-embedded questions, except that the question word always appears at the start of the embedded question.
sieska qasi keat. "He asked where the cat was."
Adjuncts may be used as temporal adverbs, with the retrospective used on the adjunct when its time precedes that of the matrix, the prospective used when its time follows that of the matrix, and the progressive when the time of the matrix is within that of the adjunct.
Joan kitap, Mariyi manja.
"After John left, Mary ate."
Mariyi manjip, Joan kita.
"While Mary was eating, John left."
Depictives are also used as coreferential adjuncts, the role being determined by default, as usual (see Grammatical Voice).
Joan manja kitulo. "John ate before leaving."
The particle an ("when") is used with a finite verb when the perfective aspect is needed.
an Joan stulan seda, ni frakta. "When John sat on the chair, it broke."
The condition is a type of adjunct clause introduced by the particle in ("if") and the conclusion is its host clause. Conditional sentences can have either real conditions and conclusions or contrafactual ones.
in Joan kanta, Toam kita.
"If John sang, Tom left."
in Joan pokanta, Toam pokita.
"If John had sung, Tom would have left."
A result sentence is a conditional sentence, or just the conclusion, which is accompanied by a satisfactive clause, which is a primary clause containing a satisfactive word, such as an adjective with the prefix zo- (Sat.Deg-).
Joanin zogravi, stulas frakta an si niseda.
"John is so heavy, the chair broke when he sat on it."
Joan zogravi, stula pofrakta.
"John is so heavy, the chair would have broken."
A superlative follows the head noun of the phrase along with any cardinal number modifying it (a cardinal number modifying the head noun must precede the head noun).
keato gravesti Marxi habi. "Marsha has the heaviest cat."
An ordinal number follows the head noun of the phrase along with any cardinal number modifying it (a cardinal number modifying the head noun must precede the head noun).
mi deko kaso unesti xeldi. "I'm living in the 1st of the 10 houses."
Explicit comparatives use the basic form of the adjective with a depictive of "exceed" for comparisons of inequality and of "match" for comparisons of equality. The subject of comparison follows the verb and the standard of comparison follows the depictive.
Joan manja muco potata sur orizi.
"John ate more potatoes than rice."
muco potata manja Joan sur Toam.
"John ate more potatoes than Tom."
gravi doagi sur keat.
"The dog is heavier than the cat."
kura fastau Toam sur Joan.
"Tom ran faster than John."
A temporal comparative is when an entity is compared to its former self with respect to some quality. The prefix pa- is used when the current degree is greater than the former degree and the prefix ze- is used when they're the same.
Joan pagravi.
"John is heavier [than before]."
Toam kura zefastau.
"Tom ran as fast [as before]."
page started: 2012.Aug.05 Sun
current date: 2012.Aug.09 Thu
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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