Koa has developed quite a bit of nuance this year in its ability to express shadings of force acting on the will. Much of this started coming together just a few months ago as I suddenly became aware of just how much linguistic machinery we have at our disposal in natural languages for making fine distinctions in this area, and for veiling (or not) the context of force or control behind a communication. Unsurprisingly given the brain of its creator, Koa is rather more transparent than English in its basic structures.
Starting out with morphological strategies (if indeed Koa has inflectional morphology, on which utterly undecided question see here), we can get at an initial simple range of semantics using modal particles, with evidentials and viridicals adding subtlety:
nitelahe "I can go"
nilulahe "I want to go"
Starting out with morphological strategies (if indeed Koa has inflectional morphology, on which utterly undecided question see here), we can get at an initial simple range of semantics using modal particles, with evidentials and viridicals adding subtlety:
nitelahe "I can go"
nilulahe "I want to go"
nikilahe "I have to go, I must go"
nivukilahe "I guess I should go"
nilikilahe "Seems like I should probably go"
nilikilahe "Seems like I should probably go"
nipukilahe "Apparently I've gotta go (based on what I hear/perceive)"
Note that ki is neutral as to the source of the necessity: nikilahe implies nothing about whether I have to go for internal or external reasons, or what those reasons might be -- see below for greater specificity here.
The particle vi, formally an imperative or optative marker, can have volitive force particularly in the 1st person. Here it's largely synonymous with the hortative ea: ea lahe "let's get going" can be regarded as semantically equivalent to nuvilahe.
nivilahe "I'd better go, I've gotta get going"
Deserving of mention at this point is the particle oe which has existed in something of an alpha version since 2003. Theoretically it might mean "should," as in "I should go, I ought to go," but though I adore that word for that meaning I've never managed to decide definitively whether it in fact really should exist and if so how it would be used. Nioelahe? Oe nilahe? Oe konilahe? Bookmark for sometime in the next decade...
Moving on to more complex structures, we can describe internal volition or need with the referent in question as the subject of a main clause:
nivoi kolahe "I can go, I'm capable of going"
nilahi kolahe "I know how to go'"
nihalu kolahe "I want to go" (equivalent to nilulahe above)
nisaa kolahe "I get to go, I'm allowed to go"
nitau kolahe "I need to go, I have a need to go (internal necessity)"
Note that ki is neutral as to the source of the necessity: nikilahe implies nothing about whether I have to go for internal or external reasons, or what those reasons might be -- see below for greater specificity here.
The particle vi, formally an imperative or optative marker, can have volitive force particularly in the 1st person. Here it's largely synonymous with the hortative ea: ea lahe "let's get going" can be regarded as semantically equivalent to nuvilahe.
nivilahe "I'd better go, I've gotta get going"
Deserving of mention at this point is the particle oe which has existed in something of an alpha version since 2003. Theoretically it might mean "should," as in "I should go, I ought to go," but though I adore that word for that meaning I've never managed to decide definitively whether it in fact really should exist and if so how it would be used. Nioelahe? Oe nilahe? Oe konilahe? Bookmark for sometime in the next decade...
Moving on to more complex structures, we can describe internal volition or need with the referent in question as the subject of a main clause:
nivoi kolahe "I can go, I'm capable of going"
nilahi kolahe "I know how to go'"
nihalu kolahe "I want to go" (equivalent to nilulahe above)
nisaa kolahe "I get to go, I'm allowed to go"
nitau kolahe "I need to go, I have a need to go (internal necessity)"
nivati kolahe "I demand/insist on going (internal requirement)"
To express external will or control, the referent becomes the subject of a nominalized subordinate clause governed by a predicate explaining the relevant semantics:
tau konilahe "I have to go (external necessity), there's a need for me to go"
pono konilahe "I should go, it's fitting/proper that I go"
halu konilahe "there's a desire for me to go (external volition)"
To express external will or control, the referent becomes the subject of a nominalized subordinate clause governed by a predicate explaining the relevant semantics:
tau konilahe "I have to go (external necessity), there's a need for me to go"
pono konilahe "I should go, it's fitting/proper that I go"
halu konilahe "there's a desire for me to go (external volition)"
vati konilahe "I'm required to go (external requirement)"
noi konilahe "I've been asked to go, I have to go (external request)"
milo konilahe "I have to go (according to the rules/law)"
kase konilahe "I'm ordered to go"
pako konilahe "I'm forced/compelled to go"
i ana konilahe "I'm allowed to go, they're letting me go"
...and one with negative force:
levi konilahe "I'm not to go, I'm forbidden to go"
A few notes here:
* In this syntactic context, as is usual with predicates with presentative force, all the above forms can optionally be preceded by i -- i tau konilahe, etc. With ana it's required, as ana konilahe alone sounds like "let me go!"
* The expressions with tau and pono above are pretty common, neutral ways to translate "have to" and "should" respectively when the deontic source is external. The others are less frequent and/or have more marked or complex semantics.
kase konilahe "I'm ordered to go"
pako konilahe "I'm forced/compelled to go"
i ana konilahe "I'm allowed to go, they're letting me go"
...and one with negative force:
levi konilahe "I'm not to go, I'm forbidden to go"
A few notes here:
* In this syntactic context, as is usual with predicates with presentative force, all the above forms can optionally be preceded by i -- i tau konilahe, etc. With ana it's required, as ana konilahe alone sounds like "let me go!"
* The expressions with tau and pono above are pretty common, neutral ways to translate "have to" and "should" respectively when the deontic source is external. The others are less frequent and/or have more marked or complex semantics.
* Evidentials and viridicals can of course combine with these structures as well for additional nuance: puvati konilahe "I'm required to go, so I'm informed," and so on.
These presentative forms downplay the actual agents of control: we may be talking about actual, specific people, or institutions, or just cultural forces. If we want to bring the presence of those agents further onto the stage, we can use hi- with the predicates that have transitive verbal valence (i.e. not pono, milo or levi):
hivati konilahe "'someone' is insisting that I go...(as in, we all know that 'someone' is my wife)"
Finally, just to spell this out, with a non-pronominal subject in those subordinate clauses, we'd have the usual syntax like the following:
pono ko/ve le Keoni i lahe "John should go"
...or maybe pono le Keoni kolahe? It will surprise no one that I've quietly replanted the nominalized clause briar patch in the past several months. A controversial proposal is currently in formulation for an upcoming post...
These presentative forms downplay the actual agents of control: we may be talking about actual, specific people, or institutions, or just cultural forces. If we want to bring the presence of those agents further onto the stage, we can use hi- with the predicates that have transitive verbal valence (i.e. not pono, milo or levi):
hivati konilahe "'someone' is insisting that I go...(as in, we all know that 'someone' is my wife)"
Finally, just to spell this out, with a non-pronominal subject in those subordinate clauses, we'd have the usual syntax like the following:
pono ko/ve le Keoni i lahe "John should go"
...or maybe pono le Keoni kolahe? It will surprise no one that I've quietly replanted the nominalized clause briar patch in the past several months. A controversial proposal is currently in formulation for an upcoming post...
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