Re: Complement clauses

Daniel Andreasson Vpc-Work sikyal:

> 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!
Yivrian does it in a fairly boring way, with the complementizers
"em/ef/eth". The interesting thing is that there areh *three*
complementizers, selected by the verb in the main clause.

Generally "em" is used with verbs indicating thought or mental state:

Al arnoyaa em   el fainyata.
I  believe that he is-not-present

"Ef" is used with verbs indicating speech. What's written after "ef" is
taken as a direct quote, preserving the tense and reference of the
original statement.

Al peyyaas   ef   el fainyata.
I  have-said that he is-not-present.

"Eth" is used with verbs indicating causation.

Al nayyaas  eth  el fainyata.
I have-made that he is-not-present.

The fun comes with the verbs that can take more than one of these
constructions. For example, the verb "to order" can have either the speech
complementizer or the causation complementizer, depending on how confident
you are that the order will be followed.


Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu
http://students.washington.edu/jaspax/
http://students.washington.edu/jaspax/blog

Jesus asked them, "Who do you say that I am?"

And they answered, "You are the eschatological manifestation of the ground
of our being, the kerygma in which we find the ultimate meaning of our
interpersonal relationship."

And Jesus said, "What?"