Paiodd Adjective Clauses

Adjective clauses involving 'to be' or 'to have' in English are very simple. You just use the nominal form of the modifying noun with an appropriate suffix:

haunir lodd ot. The man in the forest is speaking.

dar haunir lodd ot. The man in the forest is speaking to the animals.

We could also translate these sentences as 'the man who is in the forest'.

sor levutía lodd fé. The man with a dagger attacks the enemy.

It gets much more complex when the adjectival clause involves another subject or object. There are, in that case, three possibilities for clause types:

1. The noun in the adjective clause is the subject of one clause and the object of another.

2. It is the subject of both clauses.

3. It is the object of both clauses.

There are multiple strategies to form adjectival clauses in each of these cases.

Type 1: Subject of one clause, object of another.

This is the most straightforward, it seems to me.

gué ozía lodd sem ot. She is speaking to the man who saw me.

In this case, lodd is the object of ot and the subject of oz. oz is in the subordinated clause, so it is marked with the relativizing suffix -ía. We could just as well flip it around, however:

gué oz lodd sem otía. The man whom she is speaking to saw me.

Here lodd is the subject of oz and the object of ot, and ot is made subordinate with -ía.

In this case, however, Paiodd would prefer a different word order, though the above is acceptable. In general, it is preferable to begin with the adjectival clause. So:

otía sem lodd oz gué. The man whom she is speaking to saw me.

This form, using the subordinating suffix -ía is quite the most common, but there are other options available for type 1 adjectival clauses as well.

- The first is to use the relative pronoun siman:

gué oz siman lodd sem ot. She is speaking to the man who saw me.

We could also rearrange the clauses, placing the main clause first:

ot sem lodd siman oz gué. She is speaking to the man who saw me.

- Second, we can simply form compound sentences using the conjunction ó:

gué sem oz ó lodd sem ot. He saw me and she is speaking to the man.

This is not quite as clunky and displeasing as its direct translation into English implies. It is a perfectly legitimate way to form type 1 adjective clauses. Again, rearranging the clause order is possible:

lodd sem ot ó gué sem oz. She is speaking to the man and he saw me.

This runs the risk of confusion, however, as it could also mean that 'she' is the subject of both verbs. There is a way to make this clearer, however.

- Demonstrative suffix -an

gué lodd oz ó ladan sem ot. The man saw me and she is speaking to that man.

A less rigid translation would yield 'I saw the man she is speaking to.'

This makes it much clearer that it is the same man who sees me and who is spoken to by her. Again, a different order is possible:

ot sem lodd ó gué ladan oz. She is speaking to the man and that man saw me.

A less rigid translation does reveal a slight difference in force between the two, however: 'She is speaking to the man who saw me'.

- A fourth method is to use the de-verbal noun in nominal inflection, but so far, at least, it isn't possible to use this construction when the noun in the adjective clause is both subject and object. We will see this construction in type 3.

- The fifth option also does not apply to type 1 clauses, so you'll have to wait until we get to types 2 and 3.

Well, then, maybe it isn't so straightforward after all! But there's no rest for the weary - let's soldier on!

Type 2 adjectival clauses involve a noun that is the subject of both clauses.

The basic form of a sentence with type 2 clauses is as follows:

gué ozía lodd ot sem. The man who saw me is speaking to her.

lodd is the subject of both oz and ot. As is almost always the case, the clauses can be switched in order.

sem ot lodd ozía gué. The man who saw me is speaking to her.

The -ía suffix marks the subordinate clause, so if we moved it to ot, we would have a slightly different meaning:

gué oz lodd otía sem. The man who is speaking to her saw me.

sem otía lodd oz gué. The man who is speaking to her saw me.

Once again, there are other options for expressing the same general sense.

- First, as with type 1 clauses, we can use siman:

sem ot lodd siman oz gué. The man who saw me is speaking to her.

gué oz siman lodd ot sem. (same meaning)

- Compoounding is an option here, as well:

gué sem oz ó sem lodd ot. He saw me and the man is speaking to her.

sem lodd ot ó gué sem oz. (same)

Again, though, to make it clearer that the man who saw and the man who is speaking are one and the same, we can use the demonstrative suffix. See below.

Before that, however, since the noun in the type 2 clause is the subject of both verbs, we can actually leave it out the second time.

gué lodd oz ó ot sem. The man saw me and is speaking to her.

sem lodd ot ó oz gué. (same)

It is optional, but sometimes preferred for clarity's sake, to attach the -ía suffix to the subordinate verb in this case:

gué lodd ozía ó ot sem. The man who saw me is speaking to her.

sem lodd ot ó ozía gué. The man who saw me is speaking to her.

- The demonstrative suffix

gué lodd oz ó sem ladan ot. The man saw me and that man is speaking to her.

sem lodd ot ó gué ladan oz. (same)¹

Again, the de-verbal noun in nominal inflection isn't possible with type 2, as far as I know, so you'll have to wait until type 3.

However, it is possible to use

- De-verbal noun in verbal inflection:

gué assimía sem lodd ot. The man who saw me is speaking to her.

Here, assimía is the verbal inflection of assem 'sight', and it modifies the verb. We could think of it as meaning something like 'With sight (of) me, the man is speaking to her', but the best translation is as above.

This brings us to type 3. In this case, the noun in question is the direct object of both clauses. The most usual method of forming this kind of sentence is below:

oz gué lodd sem ot. She is speaking to the man I saw.

We could use the -ía suffix to clarify which clause is subordinate:

ozía gué lodd sem ot.

Otherwise, switching the order of clauses in this case changes the meaning:

ot sem lodd gué oz. I saw the man whom she is speaking to.

If we use -ía, the order doesn't matter so much, however.

ozía gué lodd sem ot. She is speaking to the man I saw.

ot sem lodd gué ozía. (same)

otía sem lodd gué oz. I saw the man she is speaking to.

oz gué lodd sem otía. (same)

Other options:

- siman

oz gué lodd siman sem ot.I saw the man whom she is speaking to.

ot sem siman lodd gué oz.

In the latter sentence, we could also use senan, the nominal inflected form of the relative pronoun:

ot(ía) sem senan lodd gué oz.

This makes the -ía suffix optional.

- ó

oz gué sem ó lodd sem ot. I saw him and she is speaking to the man.

lodd sem ot ó sem gué oz.

- -an

oz gué lodd ó ladan sem ot. I saw the man and she is speaking to that man.

- Nominal inflection

íagué assenía lodd sem ot. She is speaking to the man of my seeing.

In this case, the verb is changed into a noun, and the possessive suffix is used to indicate the 'subject' of the action. The deverbal noun is used in nominal inflection to show its relationships to lodd 'the man', which is then free to be the object of the verb ot. Although the literal translation is as above, this is one way to express the idea in the original sentence: She is speaking to the man I saw.

Note that, because it is important to stress that 'of my seeing' modifies 'the man', the word order cannot change as much here. We could, however, have the following:

ot sem lodd assenía íagué.

In which the word order is exactly reversed, yet the meaning remains the same.

- Verbal inflection

íagué assimía lodd sem ot. With my seeing, she is speaking to the man.

Here, the principle is the same as above, but the deverbal noun assem is used in the verbal inflection. This emphasizes that it is related to the verb of the main clause, giving it a meaning much like the translation offered above. However, this method is also employed to form relative clauses, such that the meaning is really the same as the original sentence. Of all the strategies mentioned, I like this one least, so it may well change or be discontinued. But I'll keep it around for a while and see if it grows on me at all.