Re: Relative pronoun?

From: "H. S. Teoh"

> Interesting... I'm struggling with noun phrases and indirect discourse in
> my conlang right now, and I'm having trouble differentiating between the
> two. I'm trying to unify direct/indirect discourse, so that the following
> two sentences would be rendered identically:
>         "I said to her, Look at that house!"
>         "I said to her to look(?) at that house."
I'm not sure how your conlang works, but mightn't Chinese inform your
decision? For the above, you get:

Wo3 jiao4 ta1, "Kan4 nei4ge fang2zi!"
Wo3 jiao4 ta1 kan4 nei4ge fang2zi.

identical, with only intonation on the spoken level or punctuation on the
written level distinguishing the two.

>    (a)  She told them that the house fell down.
>    (b)  She told them about the house falling down.
(a) Ta1 gao4su ta1men fang2zi dao3ta1 le.
(b) Ta1 gao4su ta1men fang2zi dao3ta1 de shi4(qing2).
(She told them about the event of the house falling down)

almost identical, but it still keeps a distinction. Again, I don't know how
your lang works, and you're on your own analysis-wise.

As for Géarthnuns, here's how the Géarthçins handle these:

>  "I said to her, Look at that house!"
Sí lé sanak ngamath "(Öçek la) chö béöbsöt helkeböt hüdimtel!"
I-nom past she-dat say "(you-nom pres) the house-acc that-acc
look-imperative

> "I said to her to look(?) at that house."
Sí lé sanak, gü san lé chö béöbsöt helkeböt hüdimtel sho, ngamath.
I-nom past she-dat, that she-nom past the house-acc that-acc look-imperative
SHO, say/tell
(imperative mood can be used in indirect commands and so has tense.)

> (a)  She told them that the house fell down.
San lé rhethel, gü chö béöbs lé höihörkfaz sho, ngamath (or: íagauvel).
she-nom past they-dat, that the house-nom past fall.down-discoursive SHO,
say/tell
(discoursive mood for indirect discourse, questions, and a couple of sundry
other functions)

> (b)  She told them about the house falling down.
San lé rhethel chau örkfazélörsaut chö béöbsös ngamath (or: íagauvel).
she-nom past they-dat the falling.down-acc the house-gen say/tell

or more à l'anglaise:

San lé rhethel chau örkfazélörsaub ésh chö béöbsös ngamath (or: íagauvel).
she-nom past they-dat the falling.down-postpositional about the house-gen
say/tell

Kou