Scope

A phrase's scope is the region of the sentence in which that phrase's meaning applies.

Quantifier scope

Ꝡa chı sá poq, ꝡä faq tú huı kûı sá raı.

Complementizers create scopes.

Ꝡa chı sá poq, ꝡä faq tú huı kûı sá raı.

Determiners are limited by scopes.

∃ poq: Ꝡa chı póq, ∀ huı: ∃ raı: ꝡä faq húı kûı ráı.

Determiners imply quantifiers at the start of the scope.

A determiner introduces a logical quantifier whose scope is the smallest clause it's in. This means that the interpretation of the quantification happens in that smallest clause, and not at the level of the entire sentence:

Shoe jí ꝡä kuq súq sía raı da.
means: “I allow you to say nothing.” (i.e. I allow you to shut up)
not: ❌ “There is nothing that I allow you to say.”

Here, the scope of sía is the clause “ꝡä kuq súq sía raı”.

What creates scope boundaries?

Scope boundaries are created by complementizers like ꝡä and mä, but also by certain other words.

Object incorporation creates a small scope boundary for just the verb and the incorporated object.

Ꝡa he pua báq poq joe tû raı sía raı da.
“People who are good at everything don't enjoy anything.”
(not: “For all x, people who are good at x don't enjoy anything.”)

Similarly, any predicatizer (po, jeı, mea) creates a small scope boundary for itself and its incorporated object.

Ma mala kaqgaı súq fóto po tú poq móq?
“Have you seen the picture of everyone?”
(not: “Have you, for all x, seen x’s picture?”)

The cleft verb nä creates a scope boundary to its right.

Ꝡa êa, ꝡä jıq báq majı, nä geq há sá shıtuaq da.
“If magic were real, there would be unicorns one could meet.”
(not: “There are some unicorns x, that if magic were real, one could meet x.”)

The event accessor verb ë creates a scope boundary for its clause.

Ꝡa luı ca ní zuetue é jaı sía choaq da.
“This emergency has caused that no guest is happy.”
(not: “This emergency hasn't caused any guest's happiness.”)

Clefting and scope

If we want to say the other thing, we have to lift sía out of the clause by clefting it to the main clause:

Sía raı nä shoe jí ꝡä kuq súq ráı da.
There is nothing that I allow you to say. (i.e. I ban you from talking)

See The cleft verb in the refgram.

Scope creep

Ꝡa shoe jí, ꝡä kuq súq sía raı.

Sía has its scope limited by ꝡä.

Ꝡa shoe kuq jí súq sía raı.

Removing ꝡä changes the scope.

One common mistake is to rephrase sentences involving ꝡä using a serial verb, under the impression that the meaning stays the same:

Shoe jí ꝡä kuq súq sía raı da.
“I allow you to say nothing.” (I allow you to shut up)
→ 🤔 Shoe kuq jí súq sía raı da.
“I allow-to-say you nothing.” (I ban you from talking)

However, the ꝡä clause that was limiting the scope of sía is now gone, which means that sía scopes over the whole sentence. The meaning of the sentence is thereby changed to “There is nothing that I allow you to say”.

See also

• Negation