Khangaþyagon Subordinate Clauses

Subordinate clauses and reported speech

Subordinate Clauses

These are introduced by the conjunction ū "such that". For example,

iðuzhang ya rik ū nellodahing yi

iðuzh	a	ng	ya	rik	ū	nello	dah	i	ng	yi
see	1p	pt	1p	man	"such that"	worthy	be	3p	pt	3p

I saw the man who was worthy.

Subordinate clauses are disfavoured as dependants of the subject in transitive sentences, due to the awkwardness of putting such a heavy constituent between the subject and the object. When absolutely necessary, subordinate clauses qualifying the subject may undergo extraposition and move to the end of the sentence. When a subordinate clause occurs finally in a sentence where both the subject and object are third person and the same number, a proximate pronoun in the subordinate clause refers to the subject, while an obviate refers to the object.

snægri holwo Mallapont ū snægri yi holvlakh

snægr-

i

hol-

wo

mall-

ap-

ont

ū

snægr-

i

yi

hol-

vlakh

hate

3P

person

any

holy

make

PrP

such that

hate

3P

person

folk

Whoever hates mankind hates God.

Reported speech etc

This is expressed with a topic-comment structure, the topic being marked with the segunak ku.

tamiting yi mallsheuroshtkur, wiþingar yir zaldep mœza

tamit

i

ng

yi

mall

sheur

osht

ku

r

wiþ

ing

ar

yi

r

zaldep

mœza

"believe unfoundedly"

3p

pt

3p

holy

seclude

pp

about

pl

have

3p

pt

pl

3p

pl

treasure

great

He believed (unfoundedly or insincerely) that the monks had great treasure.

Action Nominal Constructions

Action nominals are formed by an ergative pattern, where the participal verb is followed by the object, marked with the possessive segunak uz, and optionally the subject, marked with the instrumental segunak ol.

eskrontþað glafuz rikol

eskr-	ont-	það	glaf-	uz	rik-	ol
ride	PrP	deed	horse	GEN	man	INST

The riding of the horse by the man (the man's riding of the horse).

When the verb is intransitive, uz marks the subject.

peshtontþað akhrumuz

pesht-	ont-	það	akhrum-	uz
run	PrP	deed	deer	GEN

The running of the deer.

When the semantics of the verb is such that the roles of the arguments can be understood from context (men ride horses, horses do not ride men), the object may be ommitted and the subject marked with uz eskrontþað rikuz

eskr-	ont-	það	rik-	uz
ride	PrP	deed	man	GEN

The man's riding

eskrontþað glafuz

eskr-	ont-	það	glaf-	uz
ride	PrP	deed	horse	GEN

The riding of the horse.

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--PeteBleackley 02:19, 6 June 2006 (PDT)