Re: THEORY: Re : THEORY: Natural language change (was Re: Charlie and I)

Raymond A. Brown wrote:

> >note that cr=E9ole and asian languages already use that handy - and
> >so beautiful to my own liking - syntactic device since ages.
>=20
> No need to look to Asia - Welsh has long been doing the same  :)
>  y  dyn  (y)  rydw i'n cerdded gyda fe
> the man (who) am   I  walking  with him
>=20
>  y  dyn  (y)  rydw i'n siarad  amdano fe.
> the man (who) am   I  talking   about him.
>=20
> Tho, as in English, the relative is normally omitted in these construct=
ions
> in the spoken language.
>=20
> BTE the apparent inversion of "I am" is nothing to do with the relative
> clause. Welsh normally puts the finite verb first.  The normal Welsh fo=
r
> "I'm taking" is "rydw i'n siarad" (am I talking).
But, how do you resume the main clause from there?
There has to be (?) some kind of particle (or tone of voice,
or some syntactic thing?) that carries on, as if to close
parentheses, unless I've been talking to cats on computers
too long. I would guess: pause in speech, comma in writing.

I'm still worried about supra-segmentals being poorly represented
in writing; and even poorly described in grammars, which describe
"relative" and "resumptive" pronouns in great detail, but what is
the name for the other boundary between sub-clause and main clause,
the ???? below:

the man RELATIVE you were walking with RESUMPTIVE ???? was xxx xxx ...

Oh well, my conlang will use tone and that's that. It will
require a wide vocal range or lack of complex embedding,
or change my mind tomorrow.