Internally headed relative clauses in Mido
▲
1▲ 1 ▼ 0
How Mido uses IHRCs to express complement clauses and causatives.
This public article was written by [Deactivated User] on 23 Aug 2018, 09:34. Editing of this article is shared with A Priori Conlangers.
[comments] mdorelative clausescausatives In Mido, internally headed relative clauses (IHRCs) are formed in the following way: construct the sentence containing head noun phrase as usual, then attribute it (via the relative clause marker ii) to the semantically rather empty noun tola “issue”. This formal noun can then become the subject or object of a verb:
Chae fal.taila eirassa
man buying boat
"The man is buying a boat"
chae fal.taila eirassa ii tola
man buying boat REL issue
"the man who is buying a boat"
(lit. "the man-buying-boat issue")
Ano fol.chenna chae fal.taila eirassa ii tola
1SGUnknown code seeing man buying boat REL issue
"I see the man who is buying a boat"
(lit. "I see the man-buying-boat issue")
Of course Mido also has externally headed relative clauses, where the head gets the relative clause as an attribute. Here, the relative clause will be introduced by the particle ro (if the head is agentive) or cha(if not):
Ano fol.chenna ro fal.taila eirassa ii chae
1SGUnknown code see REL:AG buying boat REL man
"I see the man who is buying a boat"
(lit. "I see the boat-buying man")
In the internally headed relative clause, we needn’t bother with the agent/patient indicator; the head is in its usual place, and the usual rules for building a Mido sentence apply. This probably needs more testing to see how it interacts with the topic-comment structure.
Causatives and complements
The internally headed relative clause strategy is particularly useful when expressing complement clauses, sentences that follow perceptional or illocution verbs: “I know that you did it”, “I doubt that he will come”, “I hate it that you do this.” Mido expresses these “that-clauses” with an IHRC:
Ano tol.chenna lea chira car.laella ii tola
1SGUnknown code see 2SG fish eaten REL issue
"I see that you have eaten the fish"
Ano tol.racta lea ano fal.chenna taishia ii tola
1SGUnknown code hate 2SG 1SGUnknown code looking_at this_way REL issue
"I hate it that you're looking at me like that"
Ano tol.veorra lea sae car.saora ii tola
1SGUnknown code know 2SG 3SG killed REL issue
"I know that you killed him/her"
Other nouns may appear in the place of tola to indicate reason, means, way, place, manner, time or similar adverbials:
Ano tol.veorra lea sae car.saora ii mana
1SGUnknown code know 2SG 3SG killed REL place
"I know where you killed him/her"
Ano tol.veorra lea sae car.saora ii marra
1SGUnknown code know 2SG 3SG killed REL source
"I know why you killed him/her"
Ano tol.veorra lea sae car.saora ii imdja
1SGUnknown code know 2SG 3SG killed REL time
"I know when you killed him/her"
Ano tol.veorra lea sae car.saora ii shia
1SGUnknown code know 2SG 3SG killed REL style
"I know in what way you killed him/her"
Finally, Mido uses IHRCs to express causatives. Here, the IHRC is the object of a verb like raca “put, set” or seysa “bring”, and the causee, alongside the action that they are made to perform, appears in the relative clause. A great number of different verbs may be used to nuance the manner of causation. A telic marker on the verb indicates that the causation was successful, while an atelic marker indicates an attempt that did not succeed.
The verb in the relative clause is more likely to have nonvolitional marking as a causative often involves a certain amount of unwillingness on part of the causee to perform the action itself, but this is not an absolute rule.
Zae tar.raca chae acha tor.laella ii tola
woman put man meal eat_up REL issue
"The woman made the man eat up his meal"
Zae tar.sorsa chae acha tor.laella ii tola
woman force man meal eat_up REL issue
"The woman forced the man to eat up his meal"
Zae tar.seysa chae acha tor.laella ii tola
woman bring man meal eat_up REL issue
"The woman persuaded the man to eat up his meal"
Zae tal.seysa chae acha tor.laella ii tola
woman bring man meal eat_up REL issue
"The woman tried to persuade the man to eat up his meal"
Zae tar.vaiba chae acha tor.laella ii tola
woman trick man meal eat_up REL issue
"The woman tricked the man into eating up his meal"
Zae tar.ticta chae acha tor.laella ii tola
woman complain man meal eat_up REL issue
"The woman complained until the man ate up his meal"
Zae tar.aoja chae acha tor.laella ii tola
woman seduce man meal eat_up REL issue
"The woman offered sexual favours so that the man would eat up his meal"
Frequently, a causative can be replaced entirely by a nominal construct. This is more common in written language, but since the information from the verbal complex in regard to telicity and volitionality is lost, such sentences are more ambiguous:
Zae tar.raca chaena achalaella
woman put man-GENGenitive (case)
possessive meal_eating
"The woman made the man eat/eat up his meal"
✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article
Comments
