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Ring B previous: | Dragonian |
He overcame his childhood thanks to a big domestic cat.
I think it is a big cat.
He lies and opens the bottle because he needs Thomas.
I ask if Thomas is a bottle.
He says that that is Thomas, and Thomas is not a small bottle.
Thomas carries a fish.
The cat ate the fish. That confused them.
le-poltqwos tu txe skwenbet-la va txe paka dxangaalands.
xe-tahand txe le-paka dxanga.
le-lqase lagu le-kelet txe wohe va pexend wobxasa txe Twonbas-la.
xe-tqwolutsend lak wohe k’a txe Twonbas-la?
le-tqwoluts lak Twonbas tqel lagu lwe-wek’ ta k'umbe wohe-la.
setqwel txendek latqesa txe Twonbas-la
wok'wok'wos txe teketsa txe he-dxanga txe sebe tu txe setqwel-la.
Valaklwuuxa is a verb-heavy language, with V-A word order. I.e., each clause can contain at most one full nominal core argument, whether that is the subject or the object, and the verb comes first. There are no lexical nouns; all nouns phrases contain relative clauses, which are introduced by determiners. The detailed rules for relativization are fairly complex, but in this text the target of relativization (and thus the referent of any noun phrase) is always the subject of the contained verb phrase. If the subject of a matrix verb is not provided as a noun phrase, it is obligatorily marked by a subject proclitic. Both subject and object of a transitive verb can be lexically specified by promoting the subject to matrix predicate position, and turning the transitive clause into a relative clause that serves as the subject of the promoted predicate, which can make it look like it's masquerading as SVO. In that case, definiteness and number will be marked on the relativized transitive clause. Matrix predicates, outside of a noun phrase, are unmarked for definiteness.
What exactly the morphosyntactic alignment is is something of a tricky question, but identifying absolutive arguments (in the ergative-absolutive sense) is rather important for a lot of grammatical processes.
In addition to core arguments, clauses may have oblique arguments
introduced by the quotative particle
Complement clauses are also introduced with determiners, just like
relative clauses, with the exception of direct quoted speech, and are
required to show a subject clitic, regardless of whether or not the
subject is present as a noun phrase; this is what distinguishes them
from relative clauses, where the subject is instead gapped and
relativized. When the subject is present as a noun phrase, the
obviative clitic
Grammatical number is only obligatorily marked for absolutive arguments (subjects of intransitives, objects of transitives), in which case plurality is indicated by reduplication of the final CV sequence of the controlling predicate. Plural number may also be optionally marked by a suffix on the determiner introducing a noun phrase.
Attributive possession is indicated by personal pronominal suffixes, which again target the absolutive argument of whatever predicate they are attached to.
There are also some fairly complex verb serialization rules, but I think the only one that matters here is that multiple verbs in the same verb phrase all share a single absolutive argument.
le= | : 3sg subject clitic |
pol- | : instrumental applicative prefix |
tqwo | : to kill / defeat / overcome |
s | : 3p absolutive possessive suffix |
tu | : past tense particle |
txe | : speaker-definite determiner |
skwenbet | : (to be) childhood, pre-adolescence, immaturity |
=la | : absolute substantive article; indicates that the host phrase is unmodified. |
va | : oblique case marker |
paka | : (to be) big |
dxang | : (to be a) cat |
-aland | : lexical suffix, "relating to a house" |
xe= | : 1sg subject clitic |
taha | : (to) believe |
-(e)nd | : 1p exclusive agreement marker |
lqase | : (to) lie |
lagu | : conjunction, and |
kelet | : (to) open |
wohe | : (to be a) bottle |
pexend | : adverb; "in consequence of", "significantly", "because" |
wobxa | : (to) need |
-sa | : inverse voice suffix |
Twonbas | : native adaptation of the English name "Thomas". |
tqwoluts | : (to) speak, say |
lak | : direct speech particle |
k'a | : polar interrogative particle |
tqel | : this, that (thing near you) |
wek' | : negative auxiliary, (to) not be. |
ta | : speaker-indefinite determiner |
k'umbe | : small |
setqwel | : (to be a) fish |
-ndek | : plural marker |
latqe | : (to) carry |
wok'wo | : (to be a) head |
teket | : (to) shatter |
-(CV)- | reduplication: indicates that the absolutive argument is plural |
wok'wo txe teketsa | : "to shatter the head" - idiomatic phrase; to confuse someone |
he= | : Obviative plural subject clitic and complement clause clitic |
sebe | : (to) eat |
page started: 2018.Jan.12 Fri
current date: 2018.Feb.15 Thu
content originated by Logan Kearsley
form originated by qiihoskeh
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