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Self-termination: Difference between revisions
explain a bit more
(Created page with "It has been proposed that Toaq could have '''auto-terminating clauses'''. The idea is that you don't need to say {{t|cy}} when a subclause verb has all its arguments filled. You know that the next argument must belong to the outer clause, because the inner clause can't take any more arguments. {{Example|Mẻoca {{blue|lôı súq nháo}} jí.|{{blue|The fact that you hate them}} saddens me.}} It would be ungrammatical for {{t|jí}} to be a third argument to {{t|loı}}...") |
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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. | |||
The | {{Example|Meoca {{blue|ꝡä loı súq nháo}} jí.|{{blue|The fact that you hate her}} saddens me.}} | ||
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}}. | |||
{{Example|Bua ké poq {{blue|ꝡë luı do hóa jí ní}} ní doaq.|The person {{blue|who gave me this}} lives in this city.}} | |||
It would be ungrammatical for {{t|ní doaq}} to be a fourth argument to {{t|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: {{t|Bua ké poq, {{blue|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. | |||
{{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.}} | |||
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"}}.}} | |||