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Clause Reform: Difference between revisions
Finish the proposal
(I meant nouns) |
(Finish the proposal) |
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{{Example|Pu tam gaı jí sá arane. Sao hó ꝡeı!|I saw a spider. It was huge!}}{{Example|Jua hú. Duashao jí, ꝡä luı faq hí raı.|That's strange. I wonder what happened.}}{{Example|Hoı déo, soa súna máma ba.|Kids, come help your mom.}} | {{Example|Pu tam gaı jí sá arane. Sao hó ꝡeı!|I saw a spider. It was huge!}}{{Example|Jua hú. Duashao jí, ꝡä luı faq hí raı.|That's strange. I wonder what happened.}}{{Example|Hoı déo, soa súna máma ba.|Kids, come help your mom.}} | ||
== | == Dynamic antecedents == | ||
Officially, relative clauses are generated in-place inside determiner phrases, adjoining to an 𝘯P. Under this proposal, relative clauses become '''extraposed'''. They can either appear at the very end of a clause, or just before a cleft such as {{T|nä}} or {{T|bï}}. | |||
{{Example|Gaı tú poq súq, ꝡë chụmlaoshue póq shâq ké jıo.|Everybody who was waiting in front of the building saw you.}}{{Example|Tú poq, ꝡë chụmlaoshue hóa shâq ké jıo, nä gaı hóa súq, jü chıa hạchıaısı hóa báq nu!|Everybody waiting in front of the building saw you, who need to be more careful!}} | |||
The antecedent of a relative clause is determined by the variables and anaphoric pronouns that it references. The nearest noun that binds one of these variables or pronouns is understood as the antecedent. | |||
{{Example|Do ké naq kú sá asu kíoq, ꝡë tam kuaq shao luaq hó kíoq.|The man gave the ball to some dogs that showed they wanted to play with it.}} | |||
Or, if the relative clause references the resumptive pronoun {{T|hóa}}, the antecedent is simply the nearest noun. | |||
{{Example|Do ké naq sá asu kíoq, ꝡë pu negeq náq hóa tî hú neaq.|The man gave the ball which he had found on the beach to some dogs.}} | |||
The effect of this change is that center embedding becomes illegal. This is attractive because it lets us fully preserve the [[Embedding Property]] and also avoid having center embedding be a source of confusion for listeners in the first place. The story becomes: if you have a heavy constituent, either front it or extrapose it. | |||
{{Example|*Gaı tú poq, ꝡë chụmlaoshue hóa shâq ké jıo, súq.}} | |||
== Unified grammar for subclauses == | |||
Content clauses and event accessor clauses are generated in exactly the same positions as relative clauses; they can either be fronted with {{T|nä}} or {{T|bï}}, or extraposed to the end of the clause. Like relative clauses, they have antecedents. A content clause's antecedent is the nearest content-bearing noun (such as {{T|júna}}), and an event accessor clause's antecedent is the nearest event noun (such as {{T|fáq}}). | |||
{{Example|He teaca júna jí, ꝡä bu sula kı̣udua báq tue po jíadaq.|The fact scares me that matters of the future can never be known.}}{{Example|Táosıo, lä seraq nhâna kú râo núaq já, bï chı duı hıam jí hóq.|I think the plan to attack them at night is to dangerous.}}{{Example|Jôı tú faq mabala, ë dea nháo láqbıo, nä jeaq rueqmoe jí.|With each horrible striking of the bell, I grew more tense.}} | |||
Finally, another possible antecedent for any relative clause, content clause, or event accessor clause is the word {{T|có}}. This word is essentially a lightweight placeholder for content to come at the end of the post-field, much like the 'it' in English "'''It''' delights me '''that''' they tried". The semantics of {{T|có}} are probably like {{T|sá raı}}, but with low scope. | |||
{{Example|Jaıca có jí, ꝡä leo nháo.|It delights me that they tried.}}{{Example|Kaq jí có, ë marao súq.|I saw you dance.}}{{Example|Cho jí có, ꝡë bo jí hóa.|I like that which I have. (?)}} | |||
When {{T|có}} is used as the object of a preposition or the final verbal argument of a clause, it may be covert. This is how the subordinators {{T|ꝡä}}, {{T|lä}}, etc. come to still appear as if they have no antecedent most of the time. | |||
{{Example|Bu dua áma, ꝡä gáma nä hıa gáma…|We don't know what the camel is up to…}}{{Example|Tua jí, ꝡä naı ceo sho bua súq ní, ꝡë daqbuaı bue kú hóa jí.|I cause you to now begin to inhabit this place, which has long been my home.}}{{Example|Tıshue jí ní chôe, ë rıu'aona súq jí nha.|I'll stay here until you come back to me.}} | |||
== An alternative == | |||
If center embedding turns out to be impractical to give up, here's the other possibility I was imagining for this proposal. | |||
Center-embedded clauses cannot have trailing adjuncts, and so we give up the [[Embedding Property]]. They are generated on the right periphery of clausal arguments. (I.e. in {{T|sá poq po kúe, ꝡë hao hóa}}, the relative clause is neither a constituent of the {{T|poq}} DP nor the {{T|kúe}} DP, but rather something that sits off to the side, as if it has undergone a minimal amount of extraposition.) The word {{T|có}} must be overt whenever it follows a center-embedded clause, almost as if it's a terminator. This is necessary in order to disambiguate between {{T|Aojaı póq, ꝡë cho hó sío, có, ꝡä hao júna, ꝡä luq tú}} and {{T|Aojaı póq, ꝡë cho hó sío, ꝡä hao júna, có, ꝡä luq tú}}. | |||