Self-termination: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 17:32, 21 March 2023

Toaq has self-terminating clauses. A subclause is "terminated" when it can't take any more arguments, and yet another positional argument follows. The "self-" reflects the fact that no explicit terminating particle is necessary.

Meoca ꝡä loı súq nháo jí.
The fact that you hate her saddens me.

It would be ungrammatical for jí to be a third argument to loı, which is "full" — so it must be a second argument to meoca.

Bua ké poq ꝡë luı do hóa jí ní ní doaq.
The person who gave me this lives in this city.

It would be ungrammatical for ní doaq to be a fourth argument to do, so the ꝡë-clause closes before it.

These examples are intentionally written without commas to clarify that the comma isn't what closes a subclause. But in practice, it's considered proper Toaq punctuation style to write a comma at the start and end of a subclause: Bua ké poq, ꝡë luı do hóa jí ní, ní doaq.

A limitation

One limitation is that self-termination isn't activated by adverbials, so it's hard to add an adverbial to the end of a main clause with a subclause object.

Ruaq súq, ꝡä jaı súq râo púchaq.
You say that you were "happy yesterday".

Ruaq súq, ꝡä jaı súq ??? râo púchaq.
You said that you are "happy", yesterday.

Without cy (subclause terminator from previous Toaq versions) at our disposal, we have no choice but to move the adverbial elsewhere.

Ruaq râo púchaq súq, ꝡä jaı súq.
You said yesterday that you are "happy".

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-{{GammaNote}}
+Toaq has '''self-terminating''' clauses. A subclause is "terminated" when it can't take any more arguments, and yet another positional argument follows. The "self-" reflects the fact that no explicit terminating particle is necessary.
-It has been proposed that Toaq could have '''auto-terminating clauses'''.
+{{Example|Meoca {{blue|ꝡä loı súq nháo}} jí.|{{blue|The fact that you hate her}} saddens me.}}
-The idea is that you don't need to say {{t|cy}} when a subclause verb has all its arguments filled.
+It would be ungrammatical for {{t|jí}} to be a third argument to {{t|loı}}, which is "full" — so it must be a second argument to {{t|meoca}}.
-You know that the next argument must belong to the outer clause, because the inner clause can't take any more arguments.
+{{Example|Bua ké poq {{blue|ꝡë luı do hóa jí ní}} ní doaq.|The person {{blue|who gave me this}} lives in this city.}}
-{{Example|Mẻoca {{blue|lôı súq nháo}} jí.|{{blue|The fact that you hate them}} saddens me.}}
+It would be ungrammatical for {{t|ní doaq}} to be a fourth argument to {{t|do}}, so the ꝡë-clause closes before it.
-It would be ungrammatical for {{t|jí}} to be a third argument to {{t|loı}}, which is "full" — so it must be a second argument to {{t|meoca}}.
+These examples are intentionally written without commas to clarify that the comma isn't what closes a subclause. But in practice, it's considered proper Toaq punctuation style to write a comma at the start and end of a subclause: {{t|Bua ké poq, {{blue|ꝡë luı do hóa jí ní}}, ní doaq.}}
-== Adverbial auto-termination ==
+== A limitation ==
-One extension would be to allow ending a subclause by saying an [[adverbial]]:
+One limitation is that self-termination isn't activated by adverbials, so it's hard to add an adverbial to the end of a main clause with a subclause object.
-{{Example|Mẻoca {{blue|fâ súq bũ}} jí.|{{blue|The fact that you don't go}} saddens me.}}
+{{Example|Ruaq súq, {{blue|ꝡä jaı súq râo púchaq}}.|You say {{blue|that you were "happy yesterday"}}.}}
+{{Example|Ruaq súq, {{blue|ꝡä jaı súq {{red|???}}}} râo púchaq.|You said {{blue|that you are "happy"}}, yesterday.}}
-After {{t|bũ}}, it would be ungrammatical for {{t|jí}} to be a further argument {{t|fa}}, as adverbials must come either before or after all the arguments. Thus, we can interpret a post-argument adverbial as terminating the clause.
+Without {{t|cy}} (subclause terminator from previous Toaq versions) at our disposal, we have no choice but to move the adverbial elsewhere.{{Example|Ruaq râo púchaq súq, {{blue|ꝡä jaı súq}}.|You said yesterday {{blue|that you are "happy"}}.}}