In general a clause consists of a verb, its arguments, and its adjuncts. The verb may also be preceded immediately by a polarity particle. The arguments are the subject and 0, 1, or 2 objects, limited by the valence and argument structure of the verb. The subject, when present, appears as a phrase and the objects also appear as phrases, except that in some instances, one of the objects is replaced by a complement clause. Adjuncts, when present, appear as either secondary predicates or as adjunct clauses.
Fewer objects than specified by the argument structure may appear; if none, the verb has the e-form and otherwise the a-form.
Each verb can have, depending on its valence, 1 (univalent), 2 (bivalent), or 3 arguments (trivalent), although arguments can be omitted.
The logical negation proclitic (no, Neg) is placed immediately before the verb-stem or noun-stem and negates only that predicate. The polar question particle (ci, Int) is placed at the start of the sentence, in which case the main predicate is rarely negated.
From the standpoint of syntax, a bivalent TIAL verb has 5 grammatical voices: active, inverse, passive, object-omitting (omissive), and impersonal; a univalent verb has only 2: active (which in this case is the same as omissive), and impersonal. Note that if the verb is basically impersonal, as with temporal words, yo- is omitted.
There are 4 syntactical situations for each grammatical voice: independent, coreferential, attributive, and event-nominal.
The following table summarizes the various possible clause syntax patterns (excluding some theoretically possible constructions):
| Voice | Independent | Coreferential | Attributive | Event-Nominal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active | A Va P | A … Va P | A … P Vazo | lo A Vo da P |
| A … Vo da P | ||||
| Omissive | A Ve | A … Ve | A … Vo | lo A Vo |
| Inverse | P Vaza A | P … Vaza A | P … A Vo | lo P Vazo da A |
| P A Ve | P … A Ve | lo P A Vo | ||
| Passive | P Vaze | P … Vaze | P … Vazo | lo P Vazo |
| P yo Ve | P … yo Ve | P … yo Vo | lo P yo Vo | |
| Impersonal | yo Ve | - | - | lo (yo) Vo |
A trivalent verb can have two objects (along with a subject). The objects may occur in either order (except that when the theme is a complement clause, it must appear last), but when the recipient follows the theme (normal when the theme is a pronoun and the recipient a phrase) the recipient must be preceded by the defective verb a (Loc=).
Either the recipient (without a preceding a) or the theme may be fronted or relativized, but not both at the same time. The a-form of the verb must be used as long as any objects follow it.
A primary clause is the main clause of a statement or question; it always uses the independent construction, hence the subject phrase of a primary clause must be present unless the verb is basically impersonal, in which case no subject may appear.
Janno kurre.
"John ran."
cikko vida yo elefanto.
"The child saw an elephant."
zupluve.
"It's raining."
Conjunct clauses are sequential to and coordinate with their primary clause and each is introduced by a coordinating conjunction. They're constructed like primary clauses except that the subject may be omitted (and usually is) if it coreferences the subject of the prededing clause, which may be either the primary clause or another conjunct clause.
Janno kite i me manje.
"John left and I ate." (co-ordinate)
Mario bayle i kante.
"Mary danced and sang." (co-ordinate and coreferential)
An adjunct clause is contained within a primary or conjunct clause and functions as an adverb to that clause. An adjunct clause is introduced by a subordinating conjunction such as a temporal conjunction. It may occur before the subject or after the objects of the containing clause.
pos Janno kite, me manje.
"After John left, I ate." (temporal adjunct)
han Janno gekite, me manje.
"When John had gone, I ate." (temporal adjunct)
Secondary predicates are also contained within some other clause and appear after the objects. There are two kinds of secondary predicates: depictives and resultatives. In both kinds, the subject is implicit.
A depictive is used in place of a temporal adjunct clause whose subject would coreference some argument of the containing clause. Depictives are often used as adverbial prepositional phrases would be in other languages.
damo vida omo ina kampo.
"The woman saw the man in the field."
A resultative has the same construction as a depictive but specifies the result of some action. The omitted subject is always coreferential with the containing clause's patient, which can be either the subject or an object.
damo mitta omo a kampo.
"The woman sent the man to the field."
Both relative clauses and attributive verbs are used as a noun modifiers.
Semantically and syntactically, there are two kinds: restrictive and non-restrictive. A restrictive relative clause consists of a clause containing a relative pronoun between the particles hu (Bgn) and fo (End). A non-restrictive relative clause is the same, but uses an ordinary deictic pronoun (to, so, or le) instead of the relative pronoun. When the head noun would be the subject of a relative clause, a participial modifier (?) is normally used instead.
cikko hu damo dona hi libro fo juvyne.
"The child the woman gave the book to is young." (restrictive)
cikko, hu damo dona libro le fo, juvyne.
"The child, whom the woman gave the book to, is young."
(non-restrictive)
damo dona cikko libro fo no juvyne.
"The woman who gave the child the book isn't young."
(participial)
An event-nominal clause is semantically a clause, but appears in place of a noun phrase and is introduced by the determiner lo (Nom), although in some cases, the subject can appear in its possessive form instead.
The arguments must be accounted for; the proclitic indefinite pronominal yo= (Ind=) can be used to eliminate the subject and the ·o ending eliminates any object. If the object of a basically bivalent verb is needed, a genitive phrase using the defective verb da= (Gen=) can be used. The same is true of the theme object of a trivalent verb. If the recipient object is needed instead of or as well as the theme, a phrase using the defective verb a= (Loc=) can be used.
A complement clause is a clause (or sequence of coordinate clauses) that appears in place of an object phrase. It can be coreferential, in which case the topical argument of the complement clause is the same as that of the containing clause, or not. In a coreferential clauses, the topical argument is omitted (unless intensive or focused).
The object of an auxiliary verb is a complement clause. Some of the things auxiliary verbs are used for are evidentiality and modality, with the former divided into direct and indirect and the latter into epistemic, deontic, and potential categories.
A direct evidential must be a verb of perception and its complement's verb must have one of the direct aspects: stative, aoristic, or progressive.
me auda te kante.
"I heard you singing." (direct evidential)
This grouping includes:
When the auxiliary is a verb of transpiration, a complement clause used as its object represents indirect speech, while direct speech is introduced by and followed by the quotative particle zo.
me auda te bikante.
"I hear that you sing." (indirect evidential)
me sapa te gekante.
"I know that you've sung." (epistemic modal)
to dica me te bikante.
"They told me that you sing." (indirect speech)
to dica me zo le bikante zo.
"They told me, 'she sings'." (direct speech)
The deontic modalities involve permission or obligation. Since a deontic modal verb and its complement have different subject referents, both must appear; however, the deontic usually has the indefinite form marked by the proclitic pronominal yo.
yo deba te kante.
"You ought to sing." (deontic modal)
The potential modalities involve capability or necessity. Since a potential modal verb and its complement always have the same subject referent, the complement's subject is omitted.
me no pota kante.
"I can't sing." (potential modal)
The imperative mood expresses a direct command without specifying whether the implied 2nd person subject is singular or plural. It occurs only in primary clauses and is formed by not having anything before the verb except for polarity marking. The negative form may be called the prohibitive.
kante!
"Sing!" (imperative)
no bayle!
"Don't dance!" (prohibitive)
The infinitive mood is the complement-clause equivalent of the imperative mood. It's formed by placing only the jussive proclitic particle go (Jus) before the verb with, possibly with a negative particle in between. The implied subject is the recipient of the transpiration matrix clause.
le dica me go no kante.
"He told me not to sing." (infinitive)
The jussive mood expresses an indirect command or an exhortation and is formed by placing the jussive proclitic particle go (Jus) before the subject, and may be used in both primary clauses and complement clauses. It's also used to express a direct command when the number of the subject must be specified.
go to kante!
"Have them sing!" (jussive)
go os kante!
"Let's sing!" (jussive -- exhortation)
go vas kurre!
"Run, y'all!" (jussive as imperative)
The optative mood expresses a wish and is formed by prefixing tu- (Opt-) to the verb-stem (which may include an aspect prefix); any negative particle precedes it. It can be used in both primary clauses and complement clauses.
to tukante!
"I hope they sing!" (optative mood)
Note: There may be problems with the syntax of these constructions, possibly fixed using the defective monovalent verb e.
Clauses involving the identity of two noun phrase referents are usually formed simply by placing one phrase after the other; each noun phrase must be definite in some way.
Clauses involving the definition of some entity denoted by a subject noun phrase as being the kind of entity denoted by a complement noun phrase are usually formed by placing one phrase after the other; the subject noun phrase must be definite and the complement noun phrase must be indefinite. If the complement consists of a single noun, its ending is changed from ·o to ·e.
Clauses involving the existence of the kind of entity denoted by a noun phrase are usually formed by changing the ending of the last modifier of the phrase from ·o to ·e. If there are no such modifiers, the defective monovalent verb e is placed after the noun instead.
The noun phrases described so far have been the anaphoric ones beginning with nouns. Phrases that introduce new entities, however, always place at least one word before the noun. There are three kinds of phrases that do this: indefinite noun phrases, demonstrative phrases, and subset noun phrases.
In an indefinite noun phrase, the word placed before the noun is an indefinite article, a cardinal or fractional number, or other quantifier (excluding the universal quantifier).
yo vakko
"cattle" (indefinite article)
duo gatto
"two cats" (cardinal number)
bonco cikko
"at least two or three children" (other quantifier)
In a demonstrative phrase, one of the demonstrative words is appears before or in place of the noun. A quantifier may appear directly after the demonstrative word. Demonstrative phrases are definite along with anaphoric noun phrases.
eto damo
"this woman/these women"
elo pento cervo
"those five deer"
In this kind, the new entity is a subset of another one, denoted by a definite noun phrase, to which the subset particle do (Par) is preposed. There are a number of ways a subset can be specified: by a demonstrative, an ordinal number, a superlative (all with or without cardinality), or by cardinality alone.
uno do kano grando
"one of the big dogs" (cardinality)
A genitive construction is one in which one noun phrase modifies another. The kinds available here are the possessive construction, the have-construction, and the of-construction.
The possessive construction can be used only when the possessor is pronominal and has a corresponding possessive determiner. That determiner is placed after the noun when the possessum is already contextual and before the noun when the reference (not the referent) is introduced.
ci vas gevida meo gatto?
"Have you seen my cat?"
The have-construction is used for all other possessives and for subjective genitives. The nominal form =mo (=Pos) of the defective verb ma ("have") is placed after the modifying phrase, the whole construction constituting a pre-nominal modifier.
nas no gevida cikko mo gatto.
"We haven't seen the child's cat."
The of-construction is used for objective genitives. The defective verb da= (Gen=, "belong to") is placed before the modifying phrase, the whole construction constituting a post-nominal modifier.
me valeja libro da elo damo.
"I'm going to read that woman's book."
A comparison requires some quality to serve as the basis of comparison. A comparison is either one of inequality, where the subject has more of the specified quality than the standard, or of equality, where the subject has the same amount of the quality as the standard.
There are several types of comparison that can be done:
| A. | comparing a subject of comparison to an explicit standard of comparison, |
|---|---|
| B. | comparing a subject of comparison to its former or future self, |
| C. | comparing a subject of comparison to a standard implicit in the subject's type, |
| D. | comparing a subject of comparison to a standard of necessity or excess for some event or kind of event, and |
| E. | comparing the members of a set against each other. |
There are two ways of constructing type A. In one, the standard is denoted by the complement noun phrase of a secondary predicate, which is supra (greater) or infra (lesser) for comparisons of inequality and ekwa for comparisons of equality. In the other, the adverb pli (more) or min (less) is placed before the adjective, with kwan used in the secondary predicate.
Janno alte supra Tomaso.
or
Janno pli alte kwan Tomaso.
"John is taller than Tom."
eto gatto irate ekwa eso.
"This cat's just as angry as that one."
Type B is constructed the same as type A, except that the complement of the secondary predicate is ante for former selves and poste for future ones.
Type C is just the simple use of the word denoting the quality (i.e. the adjective).
A type D construction has two clauses: a satisfactive clause containing a word of the satisfactive series and a result clause.
Type E uses only comparisons of inequality; the set members with the most of the specified quality, up to some possibly specified cardinality, become the members of a subset. This is called the superlative, although there are additional uses of that term. Type E uses the Subset Noun Phrase syntax.
The degree of comparison is an additional component that tells by how much of the quality the subject exceeds the standard. There are two kinds: exact and inexact; the latter are preposed modifiers such as vey "very" and lil "slightly" while the former are adverbial phrases consisting of some number plus a unit of measurement.
An exact degree of comparison can also be used without comparison to tell the absolute amount of a quality the subject has.
These use the logical coordinating conjunctions i "and" and o "or".
The temporal conjunctions are an "when", in "while", pos "after", and van "before". They all have the verbal counterparts ana "on", ina "in, during", posta "after", and vanta "before", respectively. The verbs are used preceding ke "what" to form the corresponding interrogative adverbs, except that kan "when" must be used instead of ana ke here.
These conjunctions, koz "because", us "by means of", and par "in order to", also have the verbal counterparts koza, usa, and para, respectively. The verbs are used preceding ke "what" to form the corresponding interrogative adverbs.
page started: 2010.Jun.13 Sun
current date: 2014.Sep.06 Sat
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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