Re: a request.

B Elliott Walker <umwalk05@...> wrote:

> i'v been piddling about with my new lang, here, (while i should have been
> doing my syntax assignment, alas) and i was wondering how yous do relative
> clauses in your langs, as i'm currently looking for ideas.
For non-oblique clauses, Draseléq leaves everything in place, and resumes
the relativized noun phrase with a pronoun that is marked as RELative.
Like this:

        Doik  ar    ren i pod       nailüt.
        there be.3s man * 3sMAS.REL see.1sPST
        'There (he) is the man that I saw.'

(_i_ just marks the object of the verb here). The RELative
inflection (generally <-d>) is added to the masculine third
person pronoun, as if you said 'There is the man I saw him-that'.

For oblique clauses, the lang uses the interrogative pronouns
as relative (not very original):

        Faik ar    qaik  i porr  nailüt.
        here be.3s where * 3sMAS see.1sPST
        'Here is (the place) where I saw him.'

For relative possessives, there can be plain juxtaposition, or
you can use the genitive case of the relativized pronoun:

        kèm   veneq       ken(es)         gef
        woman black.3pPST 3sFEM.PSS(.GEN) eyes
        'the woman her/(whose) eyes were black'

The genitive form is an innovation, and pretty pompous, so
it's generally avoided with an ugly paraphrase in formal
speech/writing:

        kèm   en    ked       veneq       gef
        woman about 3sFEM.REL black.3pPST eyes
        ~ 'the woman that about her (one can say that the)
           eyes were black'


Another languages: Ciravesu, and Curco influenced by it, use preposed
phrases with no special mark ('I - saw - man' = 'man that I saw'),
since they are SOV. My newest, Wamen, does the same but it marks
the verb.


--Pablo Flores
  http://www.geocities.com/pablo-david/index.html
  http://www.geocities.com/pablo-david/draseleq.html