Re: going without "without"

On Tue, 17 Aug 1999, Matt Pearson wrote:

> Also, whatever strategy I adopt will have to work
> for clausal adjuncts as well as nominal ones.  "She left without
> saying goodbye", for example.  "She left saying-goodbye-less-ly"
> is a tad too polysynthetic for my tastes...
Le  fulut            farey   liz     laynynat
RFL take.away-PRT-3s goodbye without speak-PNC-PRS-3s
"She left without saying goodbye".

Literally: She took herself away without she-says "may you reach your
goal". (or: "may you arrive").

The use of the present tense and imperfective aspect (with zero
marker) in the subordinate clause indicates that the action takes
place at the same time as that of the main clause; using the
perfective aspect (_laynynenat_, where -yn- would probably be elided)
would make it mean "She left without having said goodbye" (makes
sense, but means something different, most probably that she was
saying goodbye very elaborately and left suddenly before she could
finish it) and the preterite in the subordinate clause would imply
that she left without having said goodbye earlier (a kind of
pluperfect) or having ever said goodbye on any occasion that she
could have.

Note that _liz_ is used as a conjunction; it joins _farey laynynat_
to _le fulut_ and appears in the proper place for a clause
conjunction, after the first constituent. Compare:

Le  fulut            farey   so  laynynat
RFL take.away-PRT-3s goodbye and speak-PNC-PRS-3s
"She left and said goodbye", or "She left, saying goodbye".

   Irina


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