Re: Looking for interesting ways to handle relative clauses.

Hi!

Remi Villatel <maxilys@...> writes:
> Trebor Jung wrote:
>
> > I can't think of any ideas for my conlangs' relative clauses besides these:
> > as in English, Turkish (participles), and Egyptian Arabic (resumptive
> > pronouns).
Natlang:

Chinese uses a 'genitive' construction:

    wo he    ni   mai de cha.
    I  drink you  buy 's tea.
    'I drink the tea that you bought.'

    Similarly in Japanese, I think with "no", but I'm not sure.


My Conlangs:

Subordination marker + resumptive pronouns (possibly more than one!):

    Fukhian has resumptive pronouns.  There may be more than one in one
    relative clause, and the relative clause is not necessarily close to
    the modified noun.  The existence of a subordination on marked on the
    subordinate verb.  So you could say

      see man.NOM woman.ACC loves.SUBORD he.REL her.REL.
      'The man sees the woman [he loves her].'

    It is quite impossible to translate this correctly into English, I
    think.  But maybe someone comes up with a good solution.

Embedding:

    In Tyl Sjok you use the relative clause instead of the modified
    noun, so you 'embed' the relative clause into the matrix clause.
    The modified noun is found in the relative clause, where it is
    optionally  marked to be modified.

    E.g.:
      Matrix clause:    I   like tea. = 'I like the tea.'
      Relative clause:  you buy tea.  = 'You bought tea.'
      Together:
         I like you buy tea.           (unmarked referent)
         I like you buy REF tea.       (marked referent)
         'I like the tea that you bought.'

Cases (don't hit me for this term!):

    Q'eng|ai treats all words and clauses alike, namely as nouns, so
    it simply marks a relative clause in a certain case.  This is similar
    to Remi's resumptive postpositions:

> Shaquelingua also has resumptive postpositions.
>
> They were working *at* I went. = I went where they were working.
>
> They were working *during* I entered. = I entered when they were working.
>
> You'll play *in order to* go outside! = Go outside to play!
    Quite the same in Q'eng|ai, only 'during' and 'at' are expressed
    by case:

    LOC-go-PAST-(1p.AGT) PRD-working-PAST-(3p.AGT)

    PER-entered-(1p.AGT) PRD-working-PAST-(3p.AGT)

    PRD=predicative case
    LOC=locative case
    PER=perlative case

**Henrik