Re: Complement clauses

On Thu, 19 Jun 2003 12:06:23 +0100, Daniel Andreasson Vpc-Work
<daniel.andreasson@...> wrote:
>
> Amanda wrote to me privately and pointed out that this post might
> have been filtered out because of the OT in the subject line. (She
> might also just have tried to be nice to me since there were no
> replies. :D  )
I meant to reply to the original post but forgot.
I'm not sure what the precise definition of "complement clause" is, but
assuming I understand:

'Yemls simply puts {K} [c_h] in front of the clause. Since there's no
specific mark to end the clause, there's some possibility of ambiguity.
However, such clauses usually appear in the Complement-case position, which
speakers arrange to be the last argument, so that only coverb components
are ambiguous. An simple example:
{i: fOR K MOM u: IRS-m.}
|zhii fwaala kye maamo khuu zhelosom.|
[Zi: "fwA:.lV c_hE "mA:.mO xu: "ZE.lO.sOm]
1p-Sub "obvious"(to subject) conj "mother of" 2p-Sub "territorial"-Inh
Loose translation: It's obvious to me that your mother's a born control
freak.

MNCL* is also pretty dull: the subordinate clause terminator d- is placed
after the clause and takes the appropriate case.

* Is suppose I should call it something else, since it's no longer
accurate; MOCL perhaps?

Jeff

> Anyway, I'm still interested in how y'all form complement clauses in
> your conlangs, so I'll repost this question.
> All intricacies are more than welcome!
>
> Here's how it's being done in Piata.
>
> "Lekituu eiloo luachishi ite."
>
> le -kitu -u     e-    ilo    -o     luachi     -shi  ite
> 1>3-think-PAST  COMPL-be:dead-PAST  thread/yarn-PEJ  DEM.SG.INANIM.
> 'I thought that this darned thread was dead.'
>
> Word order changes from SVO to VSO in the complement clause. The
> {e-} prefix introduces the clause.
>
>Daniel Andreasson

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