Legend: Definitions, Terms, <Text>, [IPA], -Tags-, and "Glosses".
The syntax is generally head-modifier with verbs preceding their arguments.
The initial clause and the following coordinate clauses form the main sequence while a subordinate clause depends on some preceding host or matrix clause. The kinds of subordinate clauses are adjunct clauses and complement clauses.
The initial clause may be preceded by the polar question particle tyi PQ provided that the clause doesn't contain a content question word.
Null arguments are used when a coordinate clause argument coreferences an argument of the preceding main sequence clause. Coordinate clauses are always preceded by coordinating conjunctions, which are shown in the following table:
| Word | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| - | And | conjunction |
| - | Or | disjunction |
There must be a proclitic tense particle attached to each initial clause head unless the clause is imperative. A proclitic tense particle is also attached to a coordinate clause head unless the tense is the same as that of the preceding clause in the main sequence. The complementizer attaches to each complement clause head. The relative form (no proclitic) is used otherwise.
An adjunct clause is an adverbial clause and follows its host clause. Each adjunct clause is preceded by one of the subordinating conjunctions, shown in the table below. For the temporal conjunctions (Aft, Bef, and Tmp), the 1st gloss is appropriate for telic adjunct clauses and the 2nd for non-telic ones.
| Word | Tag | Gloss or Description |
|---|---|---|
| - | Aft | "after", "when no longer" |
| - | Bef | "before", "when not yet" |
| nan | Tmp | "when", "while (during)" |
| - | - | purpose |
| - | - | means |
| - | - | cause, reason |
A complement clause is introduced by the proclitic complementizer particle Cpl and may appear in addition to the matrix clause's argument phrase (if any). Since the complement clause takes the role of the patient (except with a very small number of trivalent verbs where it takes the theme role), any argument phrase must agree with the agent. If the agent of the matrix verb agrees with an argument of the complement clause verb and that argument is not otherwise expressed in the complement clause, coreference occurs.
| nisibi lehaastyo. | |
|---|---|
| ni=sip-i | le=haas-t-yo |
| Prs=want-1S/3 | Cpl=help-Inv-2/1S |
| "I want to help you." | |
A clause contains a head verb and possibly an argument phrase following it; it may also contain adverbs. Although many verbs are bivalent, at most 1 argument may be expressed as a phrase. For direct or inverse verbs, this defaults to the obviative (which may be overridden by relative clause agreement). A 3rd person proximate argument must be established in an earlier clause, or topicalized.
| doktogi. |
|---|
| do=ko-tok-i |
| Pst=Aor-see-1S/3 |
| "I saw them." |
| dohaaso ter dasya syoxa. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| do=haas-o | te=r | dasy-a | syox-a |
| Pst=help-2/3 | Def=Du | woman-3 | old-3 |
| "You helped the 2 old women." | |||
1st person arguments are either singular (1S) or dual-paucal-plural (1P). Inclusive person arguments (Incl) are also dual-paucal-plural. 2nd person arguments (2) have unspecfied number. The number of a 3rd person argument (3) is specified by the quantity word in the corresponding argument phrase, whether in the same clause or in an earlier one. Occasionally, non-restrictive non-3rd person argument phrases appear specifying number, along with other things.
A prepositional phrase is an optional adverbial phrase introduced by a prepositional particle. It appears after the clause's argument phrase, if any, and before any complement clause. There may be more than 1 prepositional phrase in a clause.
| Word | Tag | Name |
|---|---|---|
| pi | Ins | Instrumental |
| kin | Cmp | Comparative |
| fatleeba diis pi has paihya. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| fa=tleep-a | dii=s | pi | ha=s | paihy-a |
| Fut=feed-3/3 | Prox=Pl | Ins | Ind=Pl | corn-3 |
| "They will feed these with lots of corn." | ||||
A phrase may consist of a determiner, a quantity word, and any number of relative clauses (in that order). The determiner is either an article, which must be followed by at least 1 more constituent, or a pronoun. The quantity word is optional; if none appears, the number is singular.
Note that the order of univalent relative clauses is determined by focus with the focused word being the last of the univalents. A bivalent relative clause, if any appears last in the phrase.
The following table shows the determiners along with approximate equivalents:
| Word | Tag | Description | Glosses | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| dii | Prox | proximal | "this/these" | pronoun |
| soo | Medi | medial | "that/those" | |
| laa | Dist | distal | "yon" | |
| tyaa | Q | interrogative | "which" | |
| ha | Ind | indefinite | "a(n)", "some" | article |
| te | Def | definite | "the" | |
| 'on | NR | non-referential | "any" |
The dual, paucal, and plural markers are enclitic quantity words; the singular is unmarked. The quantity word "how many" is also enclitic. Other quantity words are independent.
| Word | Tag | Name |
|---|---|---|
| r(e) | Du | Dual |
| k | Pc | Paucal |
| s | Pl | Plural |
| ty | Q | Content Question |
Each relative clause is embedded in a phrase appearing within a matrix clause and always coreferences the matrix verb argument corresponding to that phrase. Hence, there must be person and number agreement between the 2 verbs. The non-coreferential argument of the relative clause may appear as an argument phrase.
In the 1st example, dasy·a "woman" is the most contrastive word while in the 2nd one, dant·a "large" is the most contrastive.
| hak syoxa dasya | ||
|---|---|---|
| ha=k | syox-a | dasy-a |
| Ind=Pc | old-3 | woman-3 |
| "a few old women" | ||
| soo nera danta | ||
|---|---|---|
| soo | ner-a | dant-a |
| Medi | bird-3 | large-3 |
| "that large bird" | ||
In the next example, a bivalent relative clause (headed by haas·a "help") appears; note that dasya and the proximate argument of haasa agree with the obviative argument of taafi and that nera and danta agree with the obviative argument of haasa.
| nidaafi te dasya haasa hak nera danta. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ni=taaf-i | te | dasy-a | haas-a | ha=k | ner-a | dant-a |
| Prs=recognize-1S/3 | Def | woman-3 | help-3/3 | Ind=Pc | bird-3 | large-3 |
| "I recognize the woman that's helping some large birds." | ||||||
Here's an example with non-3rd person agreement:
| nihosen has xrawen. | ||
|---|---|---|
| ni=hos-en | ha=s | xraw-en |
| Prs=many-1P | Ind=Pl | crow-1P |
| "We who are crows are numerous." | ||
The personal pronouns and the content question pronouns are verbs, shown in the following table:
| Word | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| mis·a | B1 | 1st person |
| nus·a | B2 | 2nd person |
| 'or·a | BIncl | Inclusive person |
| tew·a | B3 | 3rd person |
| tyog·a | BQSpc | content question, specific |
| tyer·a | BQGen | content question, generic |
| nidyogo? |
|---|
| ni=tyok-o |
| Prs=who-2 |
| "Who are you?" |
For existence, the univalent verb haw·a "exist" is used as the head of the clause.
| dohawa ha dasya. | ||
|---|---|---|
| do=haw-a | ha | dasy-a |
| Pst=exist-3 | Ind | woman-3 |
| "There was a woman." | ||
For definitions where the predicate is a single verb, that verb can be used as the head of the clause with the subject being expressed as its argument.
| nirasya te fihaasa tes nera. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ni=dasy-a | te | fi-haas-a | te=s | ner-a |
| Prs=woman-3 | Def | Hab-help-3/3 | Def=Pl | bird-3 |
| "The one that helps the birds is a woman." | ||||
For other definition clauses, and all identity clauses, the univalent 3rd person pronominal verb B3 is used as the head with the predicate expressed as its argument.
| tyi nidewa tek ktogo? | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| tyi | ni=tew-a | te=k | ko-tok-o |
| PQ | Prs=B3-3 | Def=Pc | Aor-see-2/3 |
| "Are they the ones you saw?" | |||
For certain trivalent verbs (such as "inform"), the theme argument can only be expressed by a complement clause. If none appears, the theme is refers to something already expressed (anaphoric theme).
Giving is expressed by the recipient acquiring the theme possessed by the donor.
Other trivalent verbs must use prepositional phrases.
| dotleeba laas nera pi has saabaihya. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| do-tleep-a | laa=s | ner-a | pi | ha=s | saa-paihy-a |
| Pst=feed-3/3 | Dist=Pl | bird-3 | Obl | Ind=Pl | Coll-corn-3 |
| "They fed those birds with many ears of corn." | |||||
For certain bivalent verbs, such as body part and kinship terms, the agent is semantically an obligatory possessor. There are a number of other bivalent verbs where the agent is effectively a possessor; these are used to specify possession for other phrases.
| dodogi te maamyo. | ||
|---|---|---|
| do=tok-i | te | maami-o |
| Pst=see-1S/3 | Def | mother-2/3 |
| "I saw your mother." | ||
| nimaamyo dii dasya. | ||
|---|---|---|
| ni=maami-o | dii | dasy-a |
| Prs=mother-2/3 | Prox | woman-3 |
| "This woman is your mother." | ||
There's also a bivalent verb sim·a Part used for partitive constructions where the agent specifies the whole. This verb is preceded by the indefinite determiner Ind. However, the partitive is implied when a possessor is specified.
| dotleeben hak sima tes nera. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| do=tleep-en | ha=k | sim-a | te=s | ner-a |
| Pst=feed-1P/3 | Ind=Pc | part-3/3 | Def=Pl | bird-3 |
| "We fed a few of the birds." | ||||
| fatleebi ha lago nera. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| fa=tleep-i | ha | lak-o | ner-a |
| Fut=feed-1S/3 | Ind | Poss-2/3 | bird-3 |
| "I will feed 1 of your birds." | |||
In a superlative construction, the scalar verb is inserted into a partitive construction as a modifier of the part with the indefinite article replaced by a definite one. In this case, sim·a Part must be used, even with possessives.
| dobentaafi te syoxa sima tek dasya. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| do=ben-taaf-i | te | syox-a | sim-a | te=k | dasy-a |
| Pst=Neg-recognize-1S/3 | Def | old-3 | part-3/3 | Def=Pc | woman-3 |
| "I didn't recognize the oldest of the women." | |||||
Ordinal numbers are bivalent verbs such that the agent argument is used for the whole and the patient for the part, so sim·a Part isn't needed.
| nistogi te yoksyina tek lago nera. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ni=s-tog-i | te | yok-syin-a | te=k | lak-o | ner-a |
| Pst=Sta-see-1S/3 | Def | Ord-"1"-3/3 | Def=Pc | Poss-2/3 | bird-3 |
| "I've seen the 1st of your birds." | |||||
Comparative and equative constructions compare a subject of comparison to a standard of comparison with respect to a scale of comparison, which is represented by a scalar verb. The standard appears as a prepositional phrase. A comparative is concerned with whether the subject of comparison is greater than the standard and uses the prepositional particle kin Cmp. An equative is concerned with whether they're equal and uses the prepositional particle Equ. The degree of comparison is an optional prepositional phrase specifying the difference in quality between the subject and standard; it uses the adverbial particle Deg.
| niminya te kara kin te xrila. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ni=miny-a | te | kar-a | kin | te | xril-a |
| Prs=small-3 | Def | cockroach-3 | Cmp | Def | lizard-3 |
| "The cockroach is smaller than the lizard." | |||||
In a temporal comparison, the standard of comparison is either the pronoun referring to an earlier specific time or the pronoun referring to a later specific time.
In English, secondary predicates (including prepostional phrases) are used for depictives and resultatives. In Apr29, these are expressed by subordinate clause constructions.
A resultative specifies a situation resulting from some event. The result part is expressed using a complement clause:
| dohaasen te dasya syoxa lektaba te syola. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| do=haas-en | te | dasy-a | syox-a | le=ko-tap-a | te | syol-a |
| Pst=help-1P/3 | Def | woman-3 | old-3 | Cpl=Aor-in-3/3 | Def | house-3 |
| "We helped the old woman into the house." | ||||||
A depictive specifies a situation current for some event. The situation is expressed using a temporal adjunct clause:
| dodogi te nera danta nan taba te syola. | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| do=tok-i | te | ner-a | dant-a | nan | tap-a | te | syol-a |
| Pst=see-1S/3 | Def | bird-3 | large-3 | Tmp | in-3/3 | Def | house-3 |
| "I saw the large bird in the house." | |||||||
page started: 2017.Apr.29 Sat
current date: 2017.May.09 Tue
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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