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Re: Doing without relative, coordinate and subordinate clauses?

From:Lars Finsen <lars.finsen@...>
Date:Sunday, July 1, 2007, 21:44
Den 30. jun. 2007 kl. 17.44 skrev Jeff Rollin:

> Does your conlang do this? How do you do it? Are there natlangs > which do this?
Urianians are pretty fond of using participle constructions instead of full verbal clauses in such sentences. (I gather they are less frequent in colloquial speech and are considered somewhat 'high style' though.) Like any noun the participles take various case- endings, which affect its function. This is not uncommon with highly inflected languages, I think. "I saw the man who owns an Audi and lives on our street in the Post Office today" Ninsilpostu tuni ajem ura jugan Audet, raznu esan favat. (post.office-loc.sg day-inst.sg see-1s.pret man-acc.sg own- act.part.nom Audi-acc.sg, street-loc.sg 1p.gen live-stat.part.nom) "I'll always remember the tension in her voice //when she spoke of her late father/as the train pulled out of the station and receded into the distance//" In the second sentence I'll use some instrumental participles to denote concurrent actions with some duration. Ende mindulsam sa dingja irmina, cutzuni sa badra mirin, togja gituni staconat oran inan. (always remember-1s.fut 3s.gen voice-gen.sg tension-acc.sg, speak.of- act.part.inst 3s.gen die-past.part, train-gen.sg start-act.part.inst station-abl.sg recede-act.part.nom yonder-acc) In the last one I'll use infinitives, and a dative participle. "Before I can get it for you, you need to find out how much it is and give me the money, please." Du ma frangune eng e du jande jungi ger je gegde mi oset, tunzi. (2s.dat 1s.gen bring-act.part.dat necessary be-3s.pres 2s.dat find.out-inf how.much be.worth-3s.pres and give-inf 1s.acc money- acc.pl, friendliness-inst.sg) In Urianian, the pronouns are separate when using a participle, but there are languages that include them. What you get isn't completely collapsed clauses, there is still some clausal structure there, so I guess it isn't an answer to your question really. But anyway it's a fun exercise, thanks for that. LEF