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Re: Complement clauses

From:David J. Peterson <thatbluecat@...>
Date:Friday, June 20, 2003, 9:47
I'm still having fits with this in Zhyler.   I created a Turkish style 
head-final language, which is so backwards from my L1's (English and Spanish) that I 
keep asking myself, "Is it unnatural to think this way?   Or is this just my 
L1 interference?"   Here's an example:

jememben-yf us-lar-al mat-um.

noodle-GEN. eat-PAST-2sg. see-1sg.-PRES.

"I see that you ate some of the noodles."

Well, now this example is so easy that it makes me look silly.   It'd just be 
like saying in English, "You ate some of the noodles, I see", only sounding 
like "Some of the noodles ate you, see I".   That's not tough to wrap one's 
brain around at all!   I think it's when it gets long, I get lost.   Something 
like, "I hope the man you saw didn't think I was your husband" would have to be 
worded like, "I your husband am, he thought it, you saw him, the man didn't 
think it, I hope".   Yeah.   That to me seems *really* strange.   Yet, I'm told 
it's possible, so I have to take it on faith.

Anyway, the point is, there isn't much to it.   In cases where there could be 
confusion, a third person suffix is added to the verb (e.g., "Some of the 
noodles ate you, see *it* I"), but with Zhyler, there are no true third person 
pronouns.   The noun class suffixes (the "ben" up there is a class seventeen 
suffix added to foods) can be used as pronouns and pronominal suffixes, but, 
again, only when necessary.   So if you wanted to say, "S/he sees the king", where 
the pronominal suffix for "s/he" would be /-ka/, you could only say:

petti-r mat-ø
king-ACC. see-3sg.-PRES.

not

*petti-r mat-ka
king-ACC. see-3sg.-PRES.

So, that's that.   I need sleep.

-David

Replies

Ian Spackman <ianspackman@...>
JS Bangs <jaspax@...>