Re: Silindion Relative Clauses

Hallo!

On Sun, 2 Jan 2005 14:57:22 -0800,
Elliott Lash <erelion12@...> wrote:

> There is a distinct difference in Low Silindion
> relative clauses and High Silindion relative clauses.
>
> Low Silindion Relative structures are made up of two
> parts:
>
> 1) Relative Pronoun
> 2) Relative Clause
>
> The relative pronoun is:
>
>   të   (animate)    = who   (singular/plural)
>   ta   (inanimate)  = which
>   tona  (inanimate) = which (plural)
This is somewhat odd.  No number disctinction in the animate form,
but in the inanimate?  I seem to remember a tendency towards having
more number distinctions on the top end of the animacy scale than
on the bottom end.

> The relative pronoun agrees in animacy with its
> antecedent (basically, people and animals are animate,
> things are inanimate, with the exception of the moon
> and some other religious items)
>
> The relative clause agrees in animacy with the
> relative pronoun. In the case of an animate relative
> pronoun, the verb of the relative clause is prefixed
> with "yo-" (which undergoes several morphophonemic
> changes). In the case of an inanime relative pronoun,
> the relative clause begins with the word "yova", which
> is invariable.
>
> The relative pronoun takes its case depending on the
> function it has in the relative clause.
>
> Examples:
>
> Animate:
>  Erolionar vauro të yuhyuvi olohyamma
>  "Erelion is an angel who dances with stars"
>  erolion-ar  vauro të  yo-a-hyuv-i       olos-ya-mma
>  erelion-COP angel who REL-aug-dance-PST star-pl-COM
>
> Inanimate:
>  hyuvunto ya i noriavi ta yova malyanto o i ostervi
>  "They dance under the trees which move in the wind"
>
>   hyuv-u-nto    ya    i   norë-ya-vi
>   dance-PRS-3p under the tree-pl-LOC
>
>   ta    yova malya-nto o  i   oster-vi
>   which REL  dance-3p  in the wind-LOC
>
> Finally, with a non-nominative case:
>
>  Nissa phessina i lavanta tein yulavassë apa.
>  "Let's eat the game that father caught"
>
>  nissa phess-i-na i  lavat-na  tei-n
>  let   eat-SBJ-1p the game-ACC. which-ACC
>
>  yo-a-lavass-ë       apa
>  REL-aug-catch-PST  father
Nice!

The Old Albic relative clause is opened by a particle that is
inflected for the animacy/gender, number and case of the head noun.
Note that the case is not according to the function within the
relative clause, but according to the function within the outer
clause.  If the head noun is a core argument (agentive or objective)
in the relative clause, no pronoun is necessary as it is
cross-referenced on the verb.  Otherwise, a resumptive pronoun
is used.

Example:

(1) O ndero o matara am mbas melara im hinim.
    o           ndero     o           am    mbas
    the:M(-AGT) man(-AGT) REL:M(-AGT) the:I bread
    mel-a-sa        i-m        hin-i-m
    love-PRES-3SG:A the:PL-OBJ child-PL-OBJ

    `The man who eats the bread loves the children.'

The relative clause can be moved away from the head noun as it
is marked with the head noun's case:

(2) O ndero melara im hinim o matara am mbas.

This sentence means the same as (1).  To say `The man loves the
children who eat the bread', the sentence would be:

(3) O ndero melara im hinim im materi am mbas.

Note the relative particle _im_ (plural objective) and the verb form
_materi_ (plural agent).

Here an example of a resumptive pronoun:

(4) am mbar am matara o ndero am mbas tathas
    `the house which the man eats the bread in'

The relative clause _am matara o ndero am mbas tathas_ contains
the inanimate resumptive pronoun in the locative case as its last
element (_tathas_).


> ----------------------------------------------------
> In High Silindion, the same structures as above are
> very common, but they alternate with less common
> poetic/stylistic structures that come from an older
> stage of the language.
>
> This special H.S. form is:
>
>   yo "who"
>   yova "which"
>  (these may take case suffixes)
>
> Example: Esi ssirilë nan më yo nir lanko?
>         "Do you see the man who approaches by horse?"
>
>         Esi tir-i-lë   na-n    më
>         QST see-PRS-2s man-ACC that
>
>         yo   ni-r        lanka-u?
>         REL  approach-3s horse-INST.
>
> (corresponding L.S. sentence:
>     tirilë nan më, të yohwilín nië limma lanko?
Also well done.

> ----------------------------------------------------
> An even more poetic relative structure that High
> Silindion (especially older High Silindion, almost
> Middle High Silindion) can use is a relative suffix
> attached to a conjugated verb. This suffix is <-ië>
>
> Here's the first line of a prayer to Alarie, the
> moon-goddess:
>
> A Alárië anti yendán nénië
> "Oh Alarie who gives us joy"
> A   Alárië an-ti  yendá-n né-n-ië
> VOC Alarie us-DAT joy-ACC give-3s-REL
Now that is an interesting construction!

> -----------------------------------------------------
>
> Finally, there are two pronouns for use in headless
> relative clauses. This are:
>
>  tistë "the person who, whoever, he who"
>  tista "the thing which"
>
> These are used when there is no real antecedent:
>
>   Tistë yoyar iss, nayoi ein painampra
>   "He who goes here, let him be vigilant"
>   (Whoever goes here...)
>   Tistë   yo-ya-r   iss, nayoi ei-i-n     painampra
>   whoever REL-go-3s here, let  be-SBJ-3s  vigilant
>
> (notice that this sentence used the High Silindion
> <iss> for "here", as opposed to Low Silindion <mioss>
> and  <nayoi>, as opposed to <nissa> for "let", this is
> just a personal choice of mine)
Ah, headless relative clauses.  I am not sure yet how to do them
in Old Albic.  Have to think about that.

> And that's it for now.
Thanks again for sharing a facet of your beautiful conlang with us.

BTW: Your post had a long tail of empty lines.

Greetings,

Jörg.

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