Naisek – A Constructed Language

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Syntax

Clauses and Their Components

• A clause consists of a verb phrase and any core arguments of the verb that may be expressed. The clause may also contain oblique arguments, prepositional phrases, adverbial phrases and clauses, and secondary predicates.
• A verb phrase consists of a verb and any particles or adverbs which must be adjacent to it.
• A clause is finite if the verb is finite and non-finite otherwise.
• An argument (whether core or oblique) is either a pronoun, a noun phrase, an infinitive clause, or a complement clause.
• A clause functions as the matrix of each of its components.

• Except where specifically noted, the components of a clause are free to take any order required by pragmatics. However, complement clauses and adverbial clauses occur at either the end or the start of their matrix clauses whenever possible.
• Vocative phrases, which are not really part of the clause, may be placed before or after any component.

Usage of the Cases

• A core argument takes either the absolutive, dative, or ergative case, depending on its role in the clause (see Verb Conjugation). The possible core roles in a clause depend on the clause's verb.
• The absolutive case is also used for the complement of a copula.
• Infinitive clauses and complement clauses aren't marked for case, but usually have the role of the absolutive argument.

• An oblique argument takes either the temporal or the instrumental case, depending on its function.
• The temporal case is taken by arguments specifying duration, number of instances, and both absolute and relative temporal location; details are given later.
• The instrumental case is used for the means or instrument with which something is done. It isn't used for associated persons.

Note: Possibly, the instrumental case can be used for involuntary agents, in which case there must not be an ergative argument expressed or implied.

• The remaining cases are not used for components of clauses, but for sub-components of phrases.
• The genitive case is used for possessors, objects of prepositions, and expressed core arguments of verbal nouns.
• The partitive case is used for the whole of which some part is selected or the source or material from which something is made.

Subjects and Objects

• There is a hierarchy of core cases:

  Erg > Dat > Abs

  The argument whose case is the highest of these which can appear for the clause's verb is called the subject, with any other core argument called the object (sometimes there are two objects).
• The verb agrees with the subject in person, number, and case.
• The subject is often omitted, except when needed for clarity or contrast.
• On the other hand, any other omitted argument will usually be taken as being indefinite.

Reflexive Clauses

• A clause is reflexive if it has an argument with two roles. One of those must be that of the subject while the other can be another core role, an oblique role, an object of a preposition, or a possessor.
• The case for the subject is applied to the full argument, if it appears.
• The case appropriate to the other role is applied to a pronoun. If the subject is 3rd person, the reflexive pronoun is used; otherwise the personal pronoun corresponding to the subject is normally used.

Tomasi mentati fu.	- "Tom saw himself."
Johana arkenta fam matse.	- "John will tell his mother."

Reciprocal Clauses

• A clause is reciprocal if it has two argument with the same two roles. One of those roles must be that of the subject while the other can be another core role, an oblique role, an object of a preposition, or a possessor.
• The two arguments must be combined into a compound argument (sometimes a simple plural argument can be substituted), to which the case for the subject is applied.
• The reciprocal pronoun takes the case appropriate to the other role.

Johana po Johannar sofator jande fali.	- "John and Joan gave food to each other."
Ce ni po Johannai sunwe xarsok fal?	- "Are you and Joan hearing each other?"
Mentabwe falum klobal.	- "You and I saw each other's houses."

• The reciprocal pronoun lacks the ergative case and probably the partitive and instrumental cases as well.

Additional Clause Components

• A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition and its object, which takes the genitive case. The preposition comes first unless the object is a relative pronoun.

• The subject of a secondary predicate is implicitly the same as one of the core arguments of the matrix. The secondary predicate suffix and the matrix verb's class determine which one.
• For secondary predicates taking the suffix -e (-Spo), if the matrix verb can have both an ergative and a dative argument, the dative argument may be referred to; otherwise, the absolutive argument is referred to. This type of secondary predicate can't be used where only the ergative argument is possible.
• For secondary predicates taking the suffix -u (-Sps), the ergative argument is referred to if possible; otherwise, the dative argument is referred to. This type of secondary predicate can't be used if only the absolutive argument is possible.
• Participles can take secondary predicate suffixes, in which case the secondary predicate may have an additional argument (rarely, two), which usually follows.

• There are a variety of adverbs.

• A noun phrase normally contains a noun and may contain a determiner, a quantifier, adjectives, and relative clauses. These modifiers all agree with the noun in gender, number, and case, to the degree that the modifier distinguishes gender and number. The partitive construction is only an apparent exception with regard to case agreement.
• Heterogeneous nouns take animate agreement in the ergative and dative cases, and take inanimate agreement otherwise.
• Under certain circumstances, the noun can be omitted. If it is, a determiner and at least one other modifier must be present.

• A determiner precedes the noun. Most of the determiners make the phrase definite in some way; these include the demonstratives, the definite article, "the same", and the universal quantifier "all" (which usually acts like a determiner, not a quantifier, despite its name). "The next", "the previous", "the last", and any ordinal number also act like definite determiners.
• There are also interrogative, indefinite, and negative determiners; "(a) different" also goes in the determiner position.
• The demonstratives can follow the noun instead, in which case they act simply as locational adjectives, not determiners.

• A quantifier also precedes the noun, following the determiner, if any.
• If a quantifier modifies a pronoun, the pronoun comes first (except in the partitive construction).

• Adjectives and relative clauses follow the noun, with the adjectives appearing first.

Hala tona gofola sorgala stor jangok.	- "The three big dogs are eating."
Kwarfala pagor payatcor lalbentor.	- "The first four clowns will sing."

Genitives

• The genitive forms of personal pronouns are used as possessive determiners, being placed before the noun in this usage. In general, a definite genitive placed before the noun acts like a determiner.

Kam kloba kanti.	- "My house is red."
Johanum gofo sorgiti.	- "John's dog is big."

• When the genitive is placed after the noun, it means that the phrase is indefinite, but often the partitive construction must be used instead.

  Gyaska tam pinkti.	- "One of his daughters is small."

Relative Clauses

• Restrictive relative clauses are constructed using the relative pronoun.
• The relative pronoun is marked for case according to the role it plays within the clause, but agrees with the clause's head (the noun) in gender and number.

  Hala tona gofola sorgala dali sofaka jande stor jangok.	- "The three big dogs I gave food to are eating."

• The pronoun always begins the clause, even when it takes the genitive case, i.e. it precedes its preposition or possessum.

  Kesi si hi kloba dim dema mentaki ha katto.	- "This is the house in which I saw the cat."
  Jafa si ha jem dam gofo xarsani.	- "That's the person whose dog you heard."

• Non-restrictive relative clauses use 3rd person pronouns instead of the relative pronouns and are preceded and followed by brief pauses, which are indicated in writing by commas.

The Partitive Construction

• In the partitive construction, the quantifier takes the case indicating the phrase's role in the clause while the rest of the phrase (which is marked as or assumed to be definite) takes the partitive case.

  Mentaki nel hatsu daxmetsu.	- "I saw two of the women."

• Quantifiers include fractional number. Cardinal numbers are used for the numerators of fractions and fractional numbers for the denominators. Both take the case indicating the phrase's role in the clause
• If the numerator is 1, it's omitted. Note that any verb agreeing with it takes the singular!

  Netser gofotsu sta poltok.	- "Half the dogs are running."

• If the numerator is greater than 1, the denominator takes plural form.

  Nel ukesel hatsu klobatsu kanto.	- "Two fifths of the houses are red."

Time Expressions

• Expressions of duration use quantifiers with time words that are basically indefinite; the phrases are usually indefinite as well.

  Tomasa sata lalbok tonu loralu.	- "Tom was singing for three hours."

• Time-when expressions use either basically definite time words, without quantification or basically indefinite time words with definite determiners.

  Johana sofata jandem wix kattolum besso.	- "John gave food to cats today."

• Time-displacement expressions use prepositions with temporal words; some of these can be prefixed (without the genitive case ending). The time displacement phrases use duration expressions.

  nelkyo xatsulu bahai	- "ten months ago"
  tonu dofsulu hai bessom	- "three years ago today"

• Number-of-times expressions use quantifiers with "occurrence".

Compound Arguments and Verb Agreement

• A compound argument consists of two or more phrases separated by po "and".

• The following rules apply when a compound argument is used as the subject of a clause.
• If the compound contains both 1st and 2nd person pronouns, the verb takes a 1st person inclusive plural ending, whether or not a 3rd person pronoun or phrase is included. A 1st person inclusive pronoun counts as both 1st and 2nd person.

  Nor po ka po Johana lompabor.	- "Y'all and I and John ran."

• If the compound contains a 1st person pronoun and a 3rd person pronoun or phrase (but no 2nd person pronoun), the verb takes a 1st person exclusive plural ending.

  Johana po ka lompakor.	- "John and I ran."

• If the compound contains a 2nd person pronoun and a 3rd person pronoun or phrase (but no 1st person pronoun), the verb takes a 2nd person plural ending.

  Na po Johana lompanor.	- "You and John ran."

• Otherwise, the verb takes a 3rd person plural ending.

  Tomasa po Johana lompator.	- "Tom and John ran."

• Ga makes a sentence negative and ce makes a sentence into a yes/no question; these are never used together.

Ce sorgiti nam kloba?	- "Is your house big?"
Johanum kloba ga kanti.	- "John's house isn't red."

• He reaffirms or contradicts a negative. It's always emphasized, while ga or ce may be emphasized.

Tomasum gofo he sta lalbin.	- "Tom's dog does sing."

• Ce, ga, and he can be placed before a phrase instead of the verb; this is covered in Focusing.
• Ga can be used to negate adjectives and adverbs, always being placed immediately before what it negates (similarly, he). The modified word can't be the first component of the phrase.

katto ga dostoka.	- "a cat that isn't sleeping"

• Ga and he are also used by themselves for "no" and "yes", respectively. Ce can be used similarly.

Ga, kam kloba pinkti.	- "No, my house is small."
He, ti sorgiti.	- "Yes, it's big."

Content Questions

• Interrogative pronouns normally appear at the start of a clause. In an embedded question, the interrogative pronoun must appear at the start. However, in an "echo question" (or its equivalent), the interrogative pronoun is moved to the end of the clause.

Mentaki Elfis besso. Mentani besso ca?	- "I saw Elvis today." - "You saw who today?"

The Copula

• The complement of the copula always follows it immediately.

  Jafa si gofo sorga.	- "That (over there) is a large dog."

• There is one copula in the present-day language: it's used for both transient and permanent or long-term situations.

  Ha katto si dema him klobam.	- "The cat is in the house." (transient)
  Johana si jem sorga.	- "John is a large person." (long-term)

• When used with noun phrase complements, the copula always takes absolutive agreement.

  Senik nam lasfin besso.	- "I'll be your waiter today."

• The copula isn't used for expressing simple existence.
• Prepositional phrases require a host verb, so the copula must be used when a prepositional phrase is to be either a primary predicate or an attributive adjective, with the copula's participle used in the latter case.

  Tomas si u Johanum.	- "Tom's with John."
  Cai miti ha gofo soka dema him loftem?	- "Who does the dog in the lake belong to?"

• When the complement is a single adjective, the copula isn't used; instead, the adjectival verb (adjective + -Vrb) is used.

  Johana sorgiti.	- "John is large."

In older forms of the language, two copulas existed: one for transient situations and one for permanent or long-term situations. The transient copula would become the adjectival verb suffix (-Vrb, -(i)t) and the permanent copula would become the sole independent copula (Cop, s-I-i).

• Other class 8 verbs have the same syntax as the copula.

  Kam kloba elti namha.	- "My house is different from yours."

Existence

• One way of expressing existence is to use emi-, which consists of the Passive 2 proclitic + the verb for "have".

  Emi potspa u him klobam.	- "There's a cockroach in the house."

Possibly, "belong to" is expressed only with possessive pronouns, not with my "have".

• Mood and tense are properties of finite verbs, while aspect is a property of non-finite verbs.

Meaning of the Aspects

• The progressive aspect refers to an action in progress at a given point in time and is a variety of imperfective.
• The retrospective aspect refers to state current at a given point in time resulting from a prior situation (which may be of any type). Sometimes, the result may simply be one of experience.
• The prospective aspect refers to state current at a given point in time out of which a subsequent situation will emerge.
• The habitual aspect refers to a series of situations occurring on multiple occasion. The series as a whole is considered to be in progress at the given point in time even if none of the individual occurrences is.

• The retrospective and prospective aspects are also used as relative past and future tenses, respectively, in some subordinate clauses.
• Under certain circumstances, they are used as absolute tenses.

Usage of the Moods

• The imperative mood is used only in main clauses and in the main clauses of reported speech.
• The cotemporal mood is never used in main clauses.
• The indicative, contrafactual, and subjunctive moods are used in both main and subordinate clauses.

• The imperative mood proper expresses the desire of the speaker for the addressee(s) to perform some action, and possibly some third party as well. The hortative mood is the same, but the speaker is to be included in performing the action. The jussive mood is like the imperative, except that the action is to be performed by some third party. In the performative mood, the speaker actually performs the action; this is limited to a small number of verbs. All of these may be lumped together under "imperative mood".
• The subjunctive mood is used mostly for a variety of more or less hypothetical situations, but is also used in place of the imperative (see below).
• The indicative and cotemporal moods are both used for situations which are asserted or assumed to be factual (including negative assertions and assumptions), and also for questions of fact.
• The contrafactual mood is used for certain kinds of contrary-to-fact situations.

Specific Uses of the Contrafactual Mood

• The contrafactual mood is used in the complement clauses of sep "wish". Note that "wish" here denotes a desire that's considered unfulfillable.

  Sepki lo Johana lalburta.	- "I wish John would sing."
  Sepki lo Johana surta lalbin.	- "I wish John sang."
  Sepki lo Johana surta lalbok.	- "I wish John were singing."
  Sepki lo Johana surta lalbep.	- "I wish John had sung."
  Sepki lo Johana surta lalbax.	- "I wish John were going to sing."

• It's used in main clauses where a wish is implied.
• It may be used in conditional sentences.
• It may be used in the satisfactive/excessive construction.

Commands

• Some examples of the imperative are:

  Lompunor!	- "Run!"	(imperative proper)
  Lalbubor!	- "Let's sing!"	(hortative)
  Astor.	- "They go." or "Let them go."	(jussive)

• The subjunctive mood may be used in place of the imperative proper or the hortative to make the command "polite". It's never used in place of a jussive (which is used mainly for stage directions) or a performative, except in indirect discourse.
• In indirect discourse, the imperative proper may be used if the addressees of the matrix verb are 2nd person (same number).
• Similarly, the hortative may be used in indirect discourse if the addressees of the matrix verb are 2nd person (any number) and the speaker of the main verb is 1st person.
• Otherwise, indirect discourse requires the subjunctive.

Tomasa ni arkata ir lalbuna.	- "Tom told you to sing."
Tomasa Johani arkata ir lalbaxta.	- "Tom told John to sing."

Usage of the Tenses

• Only the indicative mood distinguishes past, present, and future. These are all "absolute", meaning that they specify times relative to the time the sentence is uttered.
• The time of the imperative mood is implicitly absolute future.
• The time of the contrafactual mood is absolute present in main clauses and relative present in subordinate clauses (and similarly for the subjunctive mood).
• The time of the cotemporal mood is relative present. This is how the cotemporal mood differs from the indicative.

• When the mood is contrafactual, the retrospective and prospective aspects must be substituted for the past and future tenses, respectively, which are otherwise nonexistent.

• Within a direct quotation, the time of the original utterence is used as the point of reference.

• The non-finite verbs are the participles, infinitives, and verbal nouns.
• The subject of non-finite verb is not indicated by its form and must be determined from context.
• Any other arguments of an infinitive or participle appear the same as they would for a finite verb, but the other core arguments of a verbal noun must take the genitive case or be replaced by prepositional phrases.

Participles

• There are retrospective, progressive, and prospective participles, with the last having the same stem as the infinitive.
• There's also a habitual participle constructed by placing the verbal noun after the progressive participle of the copula (sok).
• In addition to their use in compound tenses, participles are used as attributive adjectives. Phrase components headed by these are often the equivalents of relative clauses.
• Participles may also take the adverbial and secondary predicate suffixes, the heads of adverbial clauses being formed in this way.

  Lalbepu, Johannar sta jangax.	- "Having sung, Joan is going to eat."

Infinitives

• Infinitive clauses are used in place of complement clauses under certain conditions (covered elsewhere).
• Infinitives are also used in certain kinds of generic sentences.

  Lalbax si buxmitax.	- "To sing is to be happy."

Verbal Nouns

• A Verbal noun may be used 3 ways: as an agent nominal, as an action nominal, or as part of a compound verb.
• The object, or other argument, of a bivalent verbal noun takes the genitive case, as with other bivalent nouns. The objects of trivalent verbal nouns are covered later.
• Verbal nouns used as agent nominals denote entities for which the designated characteristic is natural or inherent or sometimes just a long-term property.
• Verbal nouns used as agent nominals are animate.

  Ga mentaki ha lompin sippa.	- "I didn't see the fast runner."

• Verbal nouns used as action nominals are inanimate (and usually definite); they may be used after certain conjunctions instead of clauses.

  Ga mentaki hi lompin sippi.	- "I didn't see the fast run."

Aspects and Compound Verbs

• The retrospective participle, progressive participle, infinitive, and verbal noun are placed immediately after the copula to construct the finite forms of the retrospective, progressive, prospective, and habitual aspects, respectively.

  Sentor jangep.	- "They will have eaten."
  Johannar sata lompok.	- "Joan was running."
  Ska sofax jande hali kattoli.	- "I'm about to give the cats food."
  Tomasa ga sta lalbin.	- "Tom doesn't sing."

• The use of certain compound verb constructions is affected by the non-finite verb's aspect class:
• P-Class:
  • The present progressive construction must be used for the present imperfective indicative.
  • Other progressive constructions must be used for the other specific imperfectives.
• M-Class:
  • The present progressive construction isn't used.
  • Other progressive constructions must be used for the other specific imperfectives.
• I-Class:
  • The progressive constructions aren't used.
  • The present retrospective is used for the non-specific past perfective as well as for the present retrospective.
  • The present prospective is used for the non-specific future perfective as well as for the present prospective.

Restoring Arguments to Passive Non-finite Verbs

• Applying a passive proclitic to a verb deletes the verb's subject. The deleted argument may be added back as a prepositional phrase, but only if the verb is non-finite.
• If the argument was originally ergative, the preposition wof is used.
• If the argument was originally dative, the preposition wix is used.

Ha jem ementep wix kam si Johan.	- "The person seen by me is John."
Hi jande dojangax wof nam galbiti.	- "The food to be eaten by you is green."

• These constructions can be replaced by relative clauses.

  Ha jem da ski mentep si Johan.	- "The person I've seen is John."
  Hi jande di suni jangax galbiti.	- "The food you're going to eat is green."

• If only the direct object is present, it takes the genitive case:

  Johana sta sofin jandem.	- "John gives food (away)."

• If only the indirect object is present, it takes the genitive case:

  Johana sta sofin kattolum.	- "John gives (to) cats."

• If both objects are present, but the direct object is a clause, the indirect object takes the genitive case:

  Johana sta arkin Tomasum ir fa sta poltin.	- "John tells Tom that he runs."

• Otherwise, the direct object takes the genitive case and the indirect object takes the form of a prepositional phrase:

  Johana sta sofin jandem wix kattolum.	- "John gives food to cats."

• Some speakers always use the prepositional phrase for the indirect object.

• An auxiliary verb is used with some non-finite form of a content verb; except in compound verbs, where the copula is used as the auxiliary, this is always the infinitive. In all cases, the non-finite verb follows the auxiliary.
• There are several types of auxiliary verbs, the main ones being the aspectual, modal, and volitive auxiliaries.
• Some of these verbs (as noted below) can take a complement clause instead.

• With an aspectual auxiliary, the content word's semantic subject becomes the grammatical subject of the auxiliary.
• Aspectual auxiliaries agree according to the content verb's class.
• The copula's infinitive (sax) is usually omitted after an aspectual auxiliary.
• The process phases (which are P-Class) are pauk (Incp, "inceptive"), goin (Paus, "pausative"), fasd (Rsmt, "resumptive"), and doft (Cess, "cessative"), and the other aspectual auxiliaries (which are I-Class) are mais (Cont, "continuing"), lor(r) (Iter, "iterative").

Johan lorra glefax.	- "John kept falling."
Maisenka u kam klobam (sax omitted).	- "I'll be staying at my house."
Fasdubor lalbax.	- "Let's resume singing."

• A modal auxiliary has an implicit perceiver subject. However, this is not normally expressed; instead, the semantic subject of the content verb is used as the grammatical subject of the auxiliary.
• The explicit voice proclitic ho- can be applied to a modal auxiliary to make its own subject explicit (and now taking the dative case); the content word "takes back" its semantic subject, and takes the subjunctive mood, heading a complement clause.
• The reflexocausative + explicit voice combination (leu-) can also be applied to a modal auxiliary.
• A modal auxiliary agrees according to the content verb's class unless the explicit voice is applied to the auxiliary; in that case, the auxiliary takes dative agreement.
• The modal auxiliaries, which are I-Class, are xol ("potential"), bof ("expectation"), rest ("obligation"), panj ("logical necessity"), gait ("possibility"), and ("probability").

Johana bofta poltax.	- "John should run."
Tomasi hobofti lo Johana poltaxta.	- "Tom thinks John should run."
Leubofna lo Johana poltaxta.	- "Expect John to run!"

• With volitive auxiliaries, both auxiliary and content word may have the same semantic subject; in this case, that subject is the grammatical subject of the auxiliary. When the two verbs have different subjects, however, a complement clause must be used instead of the infinitive construction, with the content word taking the subjunctive mood.
• A volitive auxiliary always takes dative agreement.
• The volitive auxiliaries, which are I-Class, include min ("intend to") and hox ("want to").

Johani hoxti poltax.	- "John wants to run."
Johani hoxti lo poltaxka.	- "John wants me to run."

• The verb raf "hope" acts like a volitive auxiliary except that when the content verb heads a complement clause, it takes the indicative mood.

Rafki lo Tahara sta jangep.	- "I hope Tahara has eaten."

• The verb sep "wish" acts like a volitive auxiliary except that the content verb always heads a complement clause and takes the contrafactual mood.

Mariai sepati lo jafar daxmer surta lalbax.	- "Mary wished that that woman was going to sing."

• The prohibitive auxiliary, ga(h) takes only ergative agreement.
• The imperative forms of ga(h) are used to provide negative imperatives to verbs which lack imperatives, such as those in classes 3, 4, and 5.

  Gana cufax.	- "Don't sneeze."

• The prohibitive is semantically distinct from normal negative imperatives where these are possible:

  Gana glefax.	- "Don't fall (accidentally)."
  Ga glefna.	- "Don't (intentionally) fall."
  Gana xarsax.	- "Avoid hearing (accidentally)."
  Ga lexarsna.	- "Don't listen."

• Ga(h) also means "avoid".

  Johana sta gahok daufax ki.	- "John is avoiding helping me."

Auxiliaries and Grammatical Voice Proclitics

• If the proclitic belongs to the auxiliary, it can appear only on the auxiliary, but if it belongs to the content verb, it appears on either the auxiliary or the content verb according to the following rules.
• If the auxiliary is the copula, a modal auxiliary, a volitive auxiliary, raf, sep, or the prohibitive auxiliary, the proclitic appears on the content verb.

Sina lementax.	- "Be ready to look at it."
Hoxki lexarsax Johan.	- "I want to listen to John."

• If the auxiliary is aspectual, the proclitic also appears on the auxiliary except in the following two cases, where it appears on the content verb:
  • the verb is imperative or
  • the verb is past indicative and singular absolutive.

Lemaisna mentax.	- "Keep looking at it."
Emaisan mentax.	- "You were continuing to be seen."
Maisana lementax.	- "You were continuing to look at it."
Maisna lementax.	- "You're continuing to look at it."
Maisenna lementax.	- "You'll be continuing to look at it."

Subordinate Clauses

• Complement clauses, embedded questions, adjunct clauses, purpose clauses, and relative clauses may all be considered subordinate clauses.

Complement Clauses

• In addition to the uses mentioned under Auxiliary Verb Constructions, complement clauses can be used as arguments to other verbs, in place of the absolutive phrase; in this case the mood of the complement clause verb is usually indicative or cotemporal (but could be contrafactual).

Arkaka Tomasi ir Johan glefa.	- "I told Tom that John fell."
Xarsaki lo har potspar jangokta.	- "I heard the cockroach eating."

• A complement clauses requires an introductory conjunction. This makes the clause act like a noun phrase syntactically.
• The conjunction kono is used for all direct discourse (i.e. quotations).

  Tomasa arkata kono Johana sta jangok.	- "Tom said, 'John is eating'."

• The conjunction ir is used for all indirect discourse.

  Tomasa arkata ir Johana sata jangok.	- "Tom said that John was eating."

• Ir is also used for objects of perception words when the situation itself isn't perceived, but deduced.

  Tomasa mentata ir Johana sata jangok.	- "Tom saw that John was eating."

• The conjunction lo is used for objects of perception words when the situation is directly perceived.

  Tomasa mentata lo Johana jangokta.	- "Tom saw John eating."

• Lo is also used for objects of auxiliaries.

  Rafki lo Johana lalbenta.	- "I hope that John will sing."

Embedded Questions

• Embedded questions use interrogative pronouns and adverbs, not relative ones. They take the place of the absolutive phrase like complement clauses, but without an introductory conjunction.

Ga mentaki car campata ti.	- "I didn't see who asked that."
Ga niski cingo Johana lalbata.	- "I don't know how (in what manner) John sang."
Ce nisni ce Tomas si u talum klobam?	- "Do you know if Tom is at their house?"

Adjunct Clauses

• The head of an adjunct clause is a participle taking the -u adverb ending. The clause begins with the participle.
• An adjunct clause typically specifies the circumstances or time of the main clause. Other relationships between the two may also be implied.

Purpose Clauses

• A purpose clause is preceded by the conjunction noku and takes the form of either an infinitive clause (when the subject is the same) or a subjunctive complement clause.

  Ska asok wix him klobam noku sofax jande hai kattwe.	- "I'm going to the house to feed (give food to) the cat.
  Asakor demaix him xofrelbem noku lo Johan xarsaxti parcel.	- "We went into the forest so that John could hear birds.

The conjunction noku is probably a shortened form of the progressive participle of min "intend" plus the -u adverb ending. Thus, purpose clauses are basically adjunct clauses.

3rd Person Pronouns in Subordinate Clauses

• The reflexive pronoun (Rfx) can be used non-reflexively in subordinate clauses provided that the verb agrees with it. It refers to the subject of the matrix.
• The third person pronoun's referent is usually something first mentioned in a previous sentence (rather than in the matrix of the subordinate clause).
• Omitted pronouns are used for other 3rd person references in the matrix.

Johana Tomasi arkata ir fa sta poltok.	- "John told Tom that he (John) was running."
Johana Tomasi arkata ir sta poltok.	- "John told Tom that he (Tom) was running."
Johana Tomasi arkata ir tar sta poltok.	- "John told Tom that he (some third party) was running."

Clause Coordination

Compound Sentences

• A compound sentence is a sequence of simple (and/or complex) sentences separated by coordinating conjunctions. The conjunctions are:

  pone	(both/)and	true if every sentence is true
  os ?	or (inclusive)	true if any sentence is true
  jos ?	or (exclusive)	true if exactly one sentence is true
  gaus ?	neither/nor
  nepo	then

  Johana asata demaix him xofrelbem pone xarsati parcel.	- "John went into the forest and heard some birds."
  Tomasa sata jangok pone Johana sata kwergok.	- "Tom was eating and John was drinking."
  Gaus lalbana gaus buxmitak.	- "Neither did you sing nor was I happy."

  Jos comes from jeus ("choose").
• Sometimes a phrase common to all the sentences can be extracted and placed at the front of the compound sentence.
• Sometimes the conjunction may precede the first sentence as well. This is necessary with gaus or when a common phrase has been extracted.

Sta jangok jos har kattor jos har gofor.	- "Either the cat is eating or the dog (but not both)."
Ha gofo xarsati gaus Tomasi gaus Johani.	- "Neither Tom nor John heard the dog."

• "But" is translated using ga and he, sometimes with pone:

  Johani he hoxati mentax parcel pone ga mentati.	- "John wanted to see (the) birds, but didn't see (them)."

Conditional Sentences

• A conditional sentence consists of a condition and a conclusion.
• The conclusion is introduced by os, unless it comes first, in which case os is optional.
• The condition is introduced by osga; however, the sequence osga ga is replaced by osse, which is sometimes translated as "unless". Note that osga is not the same as os ga!
• Both the condition and the conclusion are otherwise complete sentences.
• A conditional sentence can be either factual or contrafactual.

• If the conditional sentence is contrafactual, both the condition and the conclusion use the contrafactual mood. Since the contrafactual mood lacks tenses, time has to be indicated using aspects:

  present	==>	simple or progressive
  past	==>	retrospective
  future	==>	prospective

  Table of Contrafactual Examples

  Conditions	Conclusions
  Osga Johan besturo,	os surta lalbok.
  - "If John were here,"	- "he would be singing."
  Osga Johan suro bestep,	os surta lalbep.
  - "If John had been here,"	- "he would have been singing."
  Osga Johan suro bestax,	os surta lalbax.
  - "If John were to be here,"	- "he would be going to sing."

• If the conditional sentence is factual, both the condition and the conclusion use the indicative mood. Any meaningful combination can occur.

  Osga Johan testa, os sata lalbok.	- "If John was there, he was singing."
  Osse Johan testi, os sta lalbok.	- "Unless John is there, he's singing."

• The conclusion of a factual conditional sentence may be a command (using either an imperative form or a jussive subjunctive).

  Osga Johan testeni, os lalbuna!	- "If John is there, sing!"
  Osga testenki, os Johan lalbaxta!	- "If I'm there, may John sing!"

• The conclusion of either a factual or contrafactual conditional sentence may be a question.

  Osga surik nu, os ce surik lalbok?	- "If I were you, would I be singing?"

page started: 2007.Jan.02 Tue
was modified: 2008.Jul.03 Thu
current edit: 2011.Dec.29 Thu
content and form originated by qiihoskeh

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