Re: theta roles and ergativity in a fairly isolating new language [longish]

On Tue, 15 Oct 2002 19:57:33 -0400, Joe Mondello <joemond@...>
wrote:

>The matter becomes fairly confused when dealing with subordinate clauses:
>
>ki nu [(nu) súdo pi brame]
>ki      nu súdo pi    brame
>hope I    find   Det horse
>I hope I find (by looking) the horse
>
>ki      mo       nu-z      [nu súdo zúyo]
>hope mother 1s-Gen [1s  find  work]
>My mother hopes I find work
>
>Thus far I think this is fairly reasonable.  The hairy part is that when
the
>subject of the subordinate clause is the experiencer, the subject and verb
>of the main clause follw the verb of the subordinate clause (follwing
>this?), e.g.:
>
>súdo-ga  ki       mo slívil-o
>find-Fut  hope 1s   money-PL
>I hope I will find/happen upon a substantial sum of money.
I am confused.  Should that example be

    súdo-ga [ki (nu)] nu slívil-o

?

(You gloss "mo" as "mother" above.)  Also, what if the experiencers of the
two clauses are not co-referential?  That is, how do you translate "I hope
that my mother happens upon money?"  Is it something like this:

    súdo-ga [ki nu] mo nu-z slívil-o

?


- Nat

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