Re: Subordination

On Wed, 24 Mar 1999, dunn patrick w wrote:

> What are some of the ways you indicate subordinate clauses in your
> languages?
Valdyan is strongly SOV, and tends to have the whole subordinate
clause as the object of the main clause. This is not a cast-iron
rule, and it breaks down almost immediately where the object clause
is longer than a few words or when there is more than one subordinate
clause.


Examples from the story on my web page:


tate somoch       rhinan rumesa      rastynat
great-grandfather sailor to work-inc thinks
"it occurs to great-grandfather to get work as a sailor"

_Rhinan rumesa_ is the object of _rastynat_.


brach  beret           lea chylat
dragon sit-on-eggs-irr it looks like
"it looks like the dragon is sitting on eggs", "the dragon seems to
be sitting on eggs".

Here _brach_ is the subject of _beret_, and _brach beret_ is the
grammatical object of the impersonal construction _lea chylat_ (i.e.
_brach_ is not its subject!). The irrealis is caused by the
indeterminacy of _lea chylat_.


[Athal] brach  bersein  le   nadenit        lhenat
Athal   dragon nest-abl REFL will take away waits
"Athal waits for the dragon to leave the nest" ("to take itself away
from the nest".

_Brach bersein le nadenit_ is the object of _Athal lhenat_.


Athal le   tisa  le   radat
Athal REFL serve REFL swear
"Athal makes up his mind to do the right thing"; _le tisa le rada_ is
in fact a set expression.


Athal arlie  nusenat       dolaynat
Athal really has-come-back shouts
"Athal shouts that he's really come back"

This could also be _arlie nusenan dolaynat_, literally stating what
he said: "I've really come back".


arne    fel    laynynat tray       airein    dodolys
himself though says     friendship power-abl better
"though he himself says that friendship is better than power"

This example doesn't have the verb at the end; _tray airein dodolys
laynynat_ would perhaps have been more correct, but _tray ayrein
dodolys_ is almost a proverb, and it's pushed to a more emphatic
position.


I realize that I also need to take another look at the "great freedom
for all the children" translation exercise - it looks like I
completely neglected the position of the object clauses!

   Irina


             Varsinen an laynynay, saraz no arlet rastinay.
                     irina@rempt.xs4all.nl (myself)
     http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/frontpage.html (English)
    http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/backpage.html (Nederlands)