Re: Doing without relative, coordinate and subordinate clauses?

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