Khangaþyagon Subordinate Clauses

Subordinate clauses, reported speech and action nominals

Subordinate Clauses

Relative 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

PROX

person

folk

Whoever hates mankind hates God.

ngabri khangaþgevont narrglæs ū snægri de Mallapont

ngabr-

i

khangaþ-

ge-

v-

ont

narr-

glæs

ū

snægr-

i

de

mall-

ap-

ont

defy

3P

magic

true

know

PrP

betray

spirit

such that

hate

3P

OBV

holy

make

PrP

The wizard defies the demon who hates God.

Adverbial Clauses

Adverbial clauses consist of an adverbial noun phrase (that is a noun phrase marked with segunakar giving it an adverbial sense), further qualified by a relative clause. The adverbial noun phrase will also be marked with a modsegunak. mansti kemno zhelbanut ū dirrimir talpar þoa

manst-

i

kemno

zhel-

ban-

ut

ū

dirrim-

i-

r

talp-

ar

þoa

stand

3P

city

place

that

at

such that

reach

3P

PL

mountain

PL

sea

The city stands where the mountains reach the sea.

Reported speech etc

This is expressed with a topic-comment structure. The topic is the most discourse-prominent component of the quoted statement, and appears fronted and marked with the segunak ku. It is followed by the comment, a finite clause which represents what was said about the topic. Within the comment, the topic is represented by a pronoun, usually proximate.

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(as the Dothrak said), 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.

This tends to correspond to verbs that still make sense when the object is omitted.

Back	Up	Next
Pronouns	Syntax	Questions, Commands, Conditionals and Counterfactuals

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