Verbs and adpositions are not marked for grammatical voice; this is no problem for finite verbs, but non-finite verbs and adpositions may need clarification as to which role the implicitly coreferent argument has. There are 2 mechanisms which can resolve this.
First, if all but one of the core arguments is present, the role not used is the one assigned to the implicitly coreferent argument. For example, if a bivalent verb has an argument taking the patientive case, the verb must have active voice (coreferent agent).
However, if the arguments are underspecified, each verb or adposition has a default voice; this is passive for bivalent verbs, dative for trivalent verbs, and passive for adpositions. Univalent verbs are either active or passive, depending on the verb.
One problem remains: adpositions and some univalent verbs can replace the normally patientive argument with an agentive one. This is solved by using a form of the unspecified pronoun to complete the set of arguments of a non-finite verb or adposition.
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.
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.
Toamu vitra frakta.
"Tom broke the window."
vitra frakta Toamu.
"It was Tom who broke the window."
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.
Joanu manja karna krudak.
"John ate the meat raw."
Joanu manja karna nudak.
"John ate the meat nude."
Marxu kusa metala planan.
"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.
Freda 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:
bu kura. "He ran."
ba kurale. "He has run."
Note that with bivalent and trivalent verbs, an unspecified pronoun must be used when the participle's voice isn't the default.
bu vida. "He saw."
bu a 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 k- (T-). The relative pronoun takes the case of the head noun within the relative clause. The clause terminator takes the case of the phrase within the clause if final and the attributive form otherwise.
cile vitro ya Joanu frakta ka. "This is the window John broke."
There are 2 kinds of complement clauses. The 1st kind contains either an infinitive if coreferential or a subjunctive mood finite verb if not.
Joanu keri vider bexo elefanta.
"John wants to see this elephant."
mu keri tu vide bo.
"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.
mu vida Joanu vitra frakti.
"I saw John breaking the window."
mu vida Joanu vitra frakta.
"I saw that John had broken the window."
keatu kasi danti ka Marxu 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.
bu eska qisi keatu. "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.
Joanu kitahek, Mariyu manja.
"After John left, Mary ate."
Mariyu manjihek, Joanu 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).
Joanu manja kituk. "John ate before leaving."
The particle an ("when") is used with a finite verb when the perfective aspect is needed.
an Joanu do stula seda, da 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 Joanu kanta, Toamu kita.
"If John sang, Tom left."
in Joanu pikanta, Toamu pikita.
"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-).
bo Joana zogravi, do stula frakta an bu da seda.
"John is so heavy, the chair broke when he sat on it."
Joana zogravi, stula pifrakta.
"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 gravesta habi Marxu. "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).
ma xeldi deko kaso unesti. "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.
Joanu manja muco potata surek orizi.
"John ate more potatoes than rice."
muco potata manja Joanu surek Toami.
"John ate more potatoes than Tom."
gravi doaga surek keati.
"The dog is heavier than the cat."
kura fastai Toamu surek Joanu.
"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.
Joana pagravi.
"John is heavier [than before]."
Toamu kura zefastai.
"Tom ran as fast [as before]."
page started: 2012.Jul.27 Fri
current date: 2012.Aug.02 Thu
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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