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.
| Back | Up | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Pronouns | Syntax | Questions, Commands, Conditionals and Counterfactuals |
--PeteBleackley 02:19, 6 June 2006 (PDT)
