Re: Subordination

Sally Caves <scaves@...> wrote:

> Subordination is very "formal" in Teonaht.  _Ihai_functions as a kind of
> relative,  a place-holder for the subject or object in question,
> and subordinate clauses follow main clauses with a mirroring of
> syntactical
> order.  Since the main clause almost invariably ends with the verb, the
> subordinate clause will *begin* with the verb, in proper and improper
> relative
> clauses:
>
> Il beto nelry ke ytonakel ihai il mabbamba.
> "The boy did-I  see kick-did that-one the ball."
> I saw the boy who kicked the ball.
The "mirror" thing is a very interesting device. What happens
if you have to embed a subordinate clause within another?
(For example "I saw the boy who kicked the ball that he had
found"?).

>
[snip]
>
> (Actually, I think Ger. would say:
> I love the blue her eyes girl, or some such thing.  I've forgotten
> so much of it; my memory of its dreadful beauties were restimulated
> after having read Twain's hilarious on-line essay about it.
>
Drasele'q has some of the types of German-like constructions
that Twain made so much fun of. For example:

_fol   ma`sst nolt masse'lmaru"r aldval   rin  essal gef  ren_
 under trees  old  orchard.LOC   sleeping with blue  eyes man
"the blue-eyed man (that is) sleeping under the trees in the orchard".

to give an extreme example. Another type, that could be considered
an alternate kind of subordinate clause, uses the genitive and
one of the participles (example from the Lament of Galadriel):

_suek sia'rhadhes kiante`n   ediste`n padhanth_
 over 1p+.GRP.GEN separating foaming  waves
"over the foaming waves that separate us",
lit. "over of-us separating foaming waves".

The first type of construction is used with "oblique" (non-core)
arguments, like "blue-eyed" and "under the trees". The second
type with core arguments. The normal subordinate form of the
second example would be

_suek ediste`n padhanth kianek      bu"tth siarhandh_
 over foaming  waves    separate.3p 3p.REL 1p+.GRP.ACC

(REL means relativized pronoun).


--Pablo Flores

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