Re: Clauses, etc

Joel wrote:
> I never really understood fully clauses and that sort of grammar, so in my
> unseeing blindness, i attempted to construct a clause system.  Basically,
> you enclose the clause in "nihk...il"  if I am trying to say, "The man that
> john hit yesterday is angry" Using that in English is should turn out to be
> "Nihk The man john his yesterday il is angry". You follow?  I hope I've got
> the right idea with clauses here.
In that sentence, there are two clauses.  A main clause "The man is
angry" and a subordinate clause "John hit yesterday".  In English,
clauses are generally classified as either independent, meaning they can
stand alone as sentences (e.g., "The man is angry") or subordinate,
meaning they cannot stand separately (e.g., "John hit yesterday").
Break down that example.  A man is angry.  Which man?  The man [who]
John hit yesterday.  "[who] John hit yesterday" modifies man.  You could
just mark all subordinate clauses with markers, like "The man nihk John
hit yesterday il is angry", but you could also be more creative and use
different markers for different kinds of subordinate clauses.  For
example, in your example, that clause is being used adjectivally.  You
could have another for clauses like "I know [that John is old]",
perhaps, say, zak ... te.  Thus, "I know that the man John hit yesterday
is angry" would be "I know zak the man nihk John hit yesterday il is
angry te"

I hope there's something in here that'll help you.  :-)

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