New embedded clause options

In the previous post, I discussed the current state of embedded clause thought in Koa, and was about to go on to other theoretical possibilities that might do a better job of maintaining the spirit of the rest of the language's design.

I have a contender, actually. It occurred to me spontaneously while walking the dog, and I'm not sure just how crazy it actually is: I know there are languages that do it this way, but none of the ones I speak. It goes like this.

What if i doesn't just mark a verb with a third-person nominal subject like I've always said? What if it marks the clause itself as being independent, finite, verbal? And what if it can be replaced with other particles to switch the clause into one of the other two main Koa roles, nominals and adjectivals? We could end up with something like:

i - verbal
u - adjectival
ko - nominal

ka toto i paólo mo pili
DEF child FIN smell SIM lizard
"the kid smells like a lizard"

ka toto u paólo mo pili
DEF child REL smell SIM lizard
"the kid that smells like a lizard"

ka toko ko paólo mo pili
DEF child NOM smell SIM lizard
"the kid smelling like a lizard"

I was astonished: I had never ever before considered the possibility that i might alternate with anything else, but suddenly I seemed to be looking at a system that completely paralleled the rest of Koa syntax. And there's no question about scope, because the clause type of every verb is clearly identified.

Well, sort of. There's no i in clauses with a pronominal subject, of course, since we've always assumed that the pronoun was taking its place; should there be an u or ko, then? My best answer to this question so far amounts to a complete reenvisioning of Koa clause structure, from this

(SUBJECT) PRONOUN (TAM) VERB (OBJECT)

to this

(SUBJECT) STATUS (PRONOUN) (TAM) VERB (OBJECT)

In other words, i is no longer a kind of pronoun: it marks the status of the clause, and the pronoun falls between it and the verb. All we need to say is that the i is generally deleted before pronouns, and all of our existing material still conforms. U and ko, then, would seemingly need to be present even with pronouns, though I'm open to further thought on this.

(i) ni loha le Susi
(FIN) 1SG love NAME Susie
"I love Susie"

ka mina [ u ni loha ] i le Susi
DEF woman [ REL 1SG love ] FIN NAME Susie
"Susie is the woman I love"

poka i ilo [ ko ni loha le Susi ]
everyone FIN know [ NOM 1SG love NAME Susie ]
"everyone knows I love Susie"

My thought is that generally a clause would either have a pronominal or a nominal subject, but not both -- in other words, not le Keoni i ta paólo mo pili "John [he] smells like a lizard" -- but this will also require more thought. It has occurred to me that using "they" in this way might be an option for overt number marking on the subject, something we currently have no way of doing:

a susi i tu si iune ka nene ni
INDEF wolf FIN 3PL PERF steal DEF baby 1SG
"some wolves stole my baby"

But we'll leave that aside for the moment. Just to establish exactly what we're talking about here, I'm going to recast all of the preceding example sentences (and one or two new ones) using this strategy.

ka talo [ u nu ma asu (ne ta) ] i piku lia
DEF house [ REL 1PL IMPF dwell (LOC 3SG) ] FIN small too
"the house we live in is too small"

ka kane [ u ma ipo ka sahi ni ] i ia paha
DEF man [ REL IMPF drink DEF wine 1SG ] FIN AFF evil
"the man who is drinking my wine is certainly evil"

ka sahi [ le Keoni u si ipo ] i si miláho
DEF wine [ NAME John REL PERF drink ] FIN PERF INCEP-rot
"the wine John drank had gone bad"

ka [ le Keoni u si ipo ] i koa nai
DEF [ NAME John REL PERF drink ] FIN good some
"the one John drank was pretty good"

le Keoni i halu [ ko ipo a sahi koa ]
NAME John FIN want [ NOM drink INDEF wine good ]
"John wants to drink some good wine"

le Keoni i halu [ le Malía ko ipo a sahi koa ]
NAME John FIN want [ NAME Mary NOM drink INDEF wine good ]
"John wants Mary to drink some good wine"

le Keoni i na ma mai koa lo [ ko si ipo a sahi pua ]
NAME John FIN NEG IMPF feel good REASON [ NOM PERF drink INDEF wine bad ]
"John doesn't feel well because he drank some bad wine"

ni si kulu [ le Keoni ko na ma mai koa ]
1SG PERF hear [ NAME John NOM NEG IMPF feel good ]
"I heard that John isn't feeling well"

pai [ le Keoni na ma mai koa ]
day [ NAME John NEG IMPF feel good ]
"A John-not-feeling-well day"

ti pai i [ le Keoni na ma mai koa ]
this day FIN [ NAME John NOM NEG IMPF feel good ]
"this day is John-not-feeling-well-y"

vo ka sene [ u si tapa ka hili [ u si suo ka lepa [ u ne ka talo  [ le Iako u si tei ] ] ] ]
here's DEF cat [ REL PERF kill DEF mouse [ REL PERF eat DEF bread [ REL LOC DEF house [ NAME Jack REL PERF make ] ] ] ]
"this is the cat that killed the mouse that ate the bread that was in the house that Jack built"

In theory, this all works beautifully. Unfortunately, though, much though it pains me given the gorgeous symmetry of this system, I'm concerned that in many cases this might just be too weird, too typologically marked, for an IAL. For what it's worth, though, I do note that the use of ko above mimics Latin complement clause structure surprisingly closely, imagining ko + verb as equivalent to an infinitive.

Leaving this idea for further deliberation, there's something in the last series of examples that I'd like to point out. Take a look at these two sentences:

pai [ le Keoni na ma mai koa ]
day [ NAME John NEG IMPF feel good ]
"A John-not-feeling-well day"

ti pai i [ le Keoni na ma mai koa ]
this day FIN [ NAME John NOM NEG IMPF feel good ]
"this day is John-not-feeling-well-y"

These both lack either a ko or an u, since any other adjectival phrase wouldn't have one either: pai mehísi "foggy day," ti pai i mehísi "this day is foggy," etc. It occurrs to me that, now that there's no i in there, if we were going to put the ko or u back in, it might just make as much sense to slap it on the beginning of the clause rather than in front of the verb. In other words:

ni si kulu ko [ le Keoni na ma mai koa ]
1SG PERF NOM [ NAME John NEG IMPF feel good ]
"I heard that John isn't feeling well"

or really, we ought to think of it like this:

ni si kulu ko [ le Keoni Ø na ma mai koa ]
1SG PERF hear NOM [ NAME John NONFIN NEG IMPF feel good ]
"I heard that John isn't feeling well"

In other words, the function of i would, among other things, be to mark the clause as finite; removing it would allow the clause to behave like any other predicate. Let's see how this would affect the rest of our example set.

ka talo (u) [ nu ma asu (ne ta) ] i piku lia
DEF house (REL) [ 1PL IMPF dwell (LOC 3SG) ] FIN small too
"the house we live in is too small"

ka kane (u) [ ma ipo ka sahi ni ] i ia paha
DEF man (REL) [ IMPF drink DEF wine 1SG ] FIN AFF evil
"the man who is drinking my wine is certainly evil"

ka sahi (u) [ le Keoni Ø si ipo ] i si miláho
DEF wine (REL) [ NAME John NONFIN PERF drink ] FIN PERF INCEP-rot
"the wine John drank had gone bad"

ka [ le Keoni Ø si ipo ] i koa nai
DEF [ NAME John NONFIN PERF drink ] FIN good some
"the one John drank was pretty good"

le Keoni i halu ko [ ipo a sahi koa ]
NAME John FIN want NOM [ drink INDEF wine good ]
"John wants to drink some good wine"

le Keoni i halu ko [ le Malía Ø ipo a sahi koa ]
NAME John FIN want NOM [ NAME Mary NONFIN drink INDEF wine good ]
"John wants Mary to drink some good wine"

le Keoni i na ma mai koa lo ko [ si ipo a sahi pua ]
NAME John FIN NEG IMPF feel good REASON NOM [ PERF drink INDEF wine bad ]
"John doesn't feel well because he drank some bad wine"

vo ka sene (u) [ si tapa ka hili (u) [ si suo ka lepa (u) [ ne ka talo (u) [ le Iako Ø si tei ] ] ] ]
here's DEF cat (REL) [ PERF kill DEF mouse (REL) [ PERF eat DEF bread (REL) [ LOC DEF house  REL [ NAME Jack NONFIN PERF make ] ] ] ]
"this is the cat that killed the mouse that ate the bread that was in the house that Jack built"

My first reaction is that this instinctively feels like the best so far. I see two objections we'll need to investigate:

1) Why do all these embedded clauses have to be non-finite? I'm asking both in terms of Koa structure and in terms of what is typologically reasonable.

I'm thinking, with undisguised relief, that the finiteness question might actually be a bit tautological. If I say kunu kona "black dog," why does the adjective "have to be non-finite" here? Well, it has to be non-finite because it's in a position in which all Koa predicates are non-finite. The same is true of phrases like ka kona "the black one." Koa predicates are finite only when preceded by i or a pronoun. Looking at it this way, I don't see that there's any other way to do it.

2) What happens when I interpret a phrase like ko le Malía ipo a sahi koa, translated above effectively as "Mary('s) drinking some good wine," according to the usual rules of Koa predicate relationships? Does it make any sense?

Well, let's see. As we know, when two Koa predicates stand in the order XY, Y modifies or describes X. If Y is specified, the relationship is seen as genitive. Ipo a sahi koa, then, will mean "drinker of good wine."

Since this phrase has no specifier, it modifies rather than possesses the head; how to translate this into English? "Drinker-of-good-wine Mary," perhaps; or "Mary, drinker of good wine." Okay.

Lastly, ko turns the whole predicate into an abstract idea: "drinker-of-good-wine-Mary-ness." My parser just broke. Let's try again.

If puna means "red one," then ko puna means "the quality/concept of being a red one," thus "redness." Can we apply this back onto our longer predicate? "The idea of Mary, (being a) drinker of good wine." "The idea of drinker-of-good-wine Mary." Great Scott, this may just work -- I really wasn't daring to hope for the literal translation to make any sense at all.

Okay. Wow. The suddenness of this discovery has kind of left me reeling.

For relative clauses, then — that is, clauses that serve to further describe or delimit their head — there are two options. One is the internally-headed relative clause, which is fully finite and marked with ke preceding the head; and the other is a standard gapping strategy for which the clause is in its non-finite form (i.e. no i occurs before the verb phrase) and may, like any other "adjectival" predicate, be preceded by u.

Complement and adverbial clauses, at this point, now seem to have one solid strategy: the clause appears in its non-finite form (sans i). If the clause is in a nominal environment, the usual specifier would be ko. One note: predicates frequently appear without a specifier when preceded by a "preposition": la koto "home(wards)," etc. If clauses are to have the same rules as other predicates, we might be able to say not only

lo ko [ si ipo a sahi pua ]
REASON NOM [ PERF drink INDEF wine bad ]
"because of having drunk some bad wine"

but also

lo [ si ipo a sahi pua ]
REASON [ PERF drink INDEF wine bad ]
"because of having drunk some bad wine"

Or with a clause with an overt subject:

lo (ko) [ le Keoni si lahe ]
REASON (NOM) [ NAME John PERF leave ]
"because John left"

Although in the past, now that I think about it, the deleted specifier has always been ka or a in the past, so maybe deleting it here would mess with the intelligibility of the phrase. So yes, all seems fine...I think. I'll need to let this sit for a while and try it out in all kinds of different contexts to make sure there are no...er...side effects.

So here's a thought. Since modifier clauses have two strategies (non-finite and finite), what if the same were true of nominal clauses? We have our non-finite strategy worked out above; I think my favorite of the finite options was with ve used as a complementizer.

Now, deciding to do this would mean using up one of only four remaining particles (we've currently got hi, ve, ie and iu). We're going to have to evaluate whether that really makes sense. I do think, though, that requiring all complement and adverbial clauses to be non-finite would be typologically unusual in its restrictiveness. What we're looking at, then, are the following kinds of alternatives:

le Mia i si sano [ ve ka moa i ma lalu poli ]
NAME Mia FIN PERF say [ COMP DEF chicken FIN IMPF sing much ]
"Mia said that the chickens were singing a lot"

le Mia i si sano ko [ ka moa ma lalu poli ]
NAME Mia FIN PERF say NOM [ DEF chicken IMPF sing much ]
"idem"

and

he [ ve ta ma tuvo hiki ]
TIME [ COMP 3SG IMPF cut grass ]
"while he was mowing the lawn"

he ko [ ta ma tuvo hiki ]
TIME NOM [ 3SG IMPF cut grass ]

I imagine that one or another of the strategies would make more sense, and be likely to be used more, in specific contexts. I suppose these trends will emerge with lots more use, and like all similar situations in Koa, it'll never actually be incorrect either way.

So hey! That ended up being quite a bit easier than I expected, actually. The next task is to go back through all of my existing multiple-clause structures and see how they fare under these new models. In particular, I'm concerned about frames like te tai ko... "it's possible that...," "maybe..." I'll report soon.