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A sentence consists of, at minimum, an initial clause which may be followed by any number of medial clauses. A medial clause may be a complement clause, an adjunct clause, a conditional clause, or a coordinate clause.
Most conjunctions consist of a case prefix + the proclitic nominalization particle ri N. When a demonstrative appears instead of a clause, only the case prefix is used.
Currently, the possible coreference strategies are anaphoric nouns, coreferential prefixes, and the 3rd person pronoun nan 3. The prefix coreferences the 1st phrase of the preceding matrix clause and the pronoun coreferences another matrix argument while anaphoric nouns are used for longer-distance coreferences. Note that when a prefix is used, the referent acts as the status argument.
A complement clause acts as a core argument (P, S, or T) of its matrix clause. The conjunction used on the complement clause is determined by the matrix verb's argument structure class. However, if the complement verb is not coreferential, the conjunction may be omitted.
Subjunctive complements don't take tense marking. The matrix verbs all come in pairs of necessity and possibility. Since polarity must be applied to the matrix clause, negation will result in necessity and possibility being swapped.
| Necessity | Possibility | Name | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| jarv- | VN | jurv- | VP | Volitive |
| haxp- | DN | huxp- | DP | Deontic |
| panj- | Nec | punj- | Pot | Physical |
| [VN] | najarvu zitkil torimoxta zihhani. | "The cat wants to eat a fish." |
|---|---|---|
| [VP] | yo najurvu zihhan torimoxtu zitkil nah. | "The fish doesn't want to be eaten by any cat." |
| [DN] | nahaxpu namoxtu zivlut toptit. | "The boy must eat the potato." |
| [DP] | yo kahuxpu namoxtu zitkil tohhan nah. | "We don't let the cat eat any fish." |
| [Pot] | vi kapunju katiptu gadxar. | "Can you walk to the house?" |
Conjunctive complement verbs are marked for tense.
Of the conjunctive matrix verbs, only the epistemic verbs hax EN "must" and hux EP "may" are paired. These are always initial and omit the person + status prefix. Note that these are related to haxpu DN "require" and huxpu DP "permit", as well as to haxlu "deduce" and huxlu "guess".
| [EN] | hax conamoxtu tohhan zitkili. | "The fish must have been eaten by a cat." |
|---|---|---|
| [EP] | hux namoxtu zivlut torniji. | "The boy might be eating an orange." |
The jussive verb sal Jus "shall" and "should" and the conclusive verb tul Exp "will" and "would" are always initial and omit the person + status prefix. The only inflection is definite time DT, which makes the sentence contrafactual.
| [Jus] | sal bamoxtu totmiti. | "You should eat a tomato." |
|---|---|---|
| [Jus] | cosal yo cokomoxtu totmit. | "I sholdn't have eaten the higher-status person's tomato." |
Matrix perception verbs with cotemporal complements are directly evidential while those with retrospective or prospective complements are indirectly evidential.
| [direct] | yo cokaxantu namoxta zihhan. | "I didn't see the fish get eaten." |
|---|---|---|
| [indirect] | kaxantu tanamoxta zihhan. | "I see that the fish has been eaten." |
Only direct speech (verbatim quotations) is currently possible. Direct speech is conjunctive with the speech verb being either kisp- "say", "tell", "answer" or kosp- "ask". Embedded questions must be handled as direct speech, e.g. "Mary told John where the cat was." becomes "Mary answered John, 'Where is the cat?'"
| [] | conakispu ziydox tovras, tanamoxtu zitkilba tohhanka. | "The woman told the man that his cat had eaten her fish." |
|---|---|---|
| [] | takokospa tovras, vi navasmu zitkilno. | "The higher-status man has asked me where his cat is." |
| [] | cokokispu tovras, vi navasmu zitkilno. | "I told the higher-status man where his cat was." |
Temporal adjunct clauses are conjunctive and take the temporal conjunction Tmp. The aspect of the adjunct verb determines the temporal relationship between the adjunct situation and the matrix situation. If the aspect is retrospective, the matrix situation is later than the adjunct situation. If it's prospective, the matrix situation is earlier than the adjunct situation. Otherwise, the situations are cotemporal in some manner. Cotemporal adjunct may be used as depictives.
| [ret] | conaviznu zitkil monamoxta zihhani. | "The cat slept, having eaten a fish." |
|---|---|---|
| [cot] | conamoxtu zitkil tohhan monaviznu ziydox. | "The cat ate the fish while the woman slept." |
| [cot] | conamoxtu zivras tohrih motuybu. | "The man ate the meat nude." |
| [cot] | conamoxtu tohrih zivras mopakxu. | "The man ate the meat nude." |
Means and purpose adjunct clause are subjunctive. A means predicate takes the instrumental conjunction Ins-N; it may be used as a resultative. A purpose-for predicate takes the benefactive conjunction Ben-N while a purpose-against predicate takes the malefactive conjunction Mal-N.
| [means] | pinasilbu zoydox toxlin diripitka zinan. | "The woman flattened the metal by pounding it." |
|---|---|---|
| [for] | conanilku zivlut tokropi parimoxta ziptiti dinan. | "The boy was cleaning a fork in order to eat a potato with it." |
Reason clauses are conjunctive and take the reason conjunction Rat.
| [reason] | conanilku zivlut tokropi tloynulka. | "The boy was cleaning a fork because it was dirty." |
|---|
A conditional sentence consist of a required conclusion followed by an optional condition. The conclusion may be a declaration, a question, or a command. Unless it's a command, it takes the initial verb Exp, whose tense determines if the sentence is factual or contrafactual. The condition is conjunctive and it takes the conditional conjunction If.
| [if] | cotul pinahokcu tokcol yattlu tiv nakiclo tovras hurgu ganan. | "The old chair would break if the heavy man sat on it." |
|---|
Each coordinated clause but the first is conjoined, using a logical conjunction. The conjoined verb is subjunctive when it's cotemporal with the preceding clause, but is conjunctive otherwise.
Each coordinated phrase but the first is conjoined, using a logical case.
page started: 2025.Feb.25 Tue
current date: 2025.Feb.28 Fri
content and form originated by Jeffrey S. Jones
(qiihoskeh)
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