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--- en:grammar:verb_phrases [2022-06-27 18:37] – habe -> ha christian
+++ en:grammar:verb_phrases [2023-02-02 12:35] (current) – [The copula] Add rationale christian
@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 No tense marker is used for actions taking place in the present (at this moment).
-**Wanita soma buku.** – The woman reads / is reading a book.
+**Ona soma buku.** – The woman reads / is reading a book.
 However, the absence of a tense marker does not necessarily indicate that the present tense is intended. If the context suggests another time, the tense markers may likewise be omitted. For example, [[adverbs]] and [[expressions#time expressions|time expression]] can explain more precisely when an act takes place. In such cases, there is no need to include a tense marker as well, hence it is usually omitted.
-**Safirja [arrive] baru.** – A/The traveler has just arrived.\\
+**Safirja baru tiba.** – A/The traveler has just arrived.\\
-**Ya lai kwai.** – He/She is about to come. / He/She will come soon.\\
+**Ya kvai lai.** – He/She is about to come. / He/She will come soon.\\
-**Ya mai ruma nyen laste.** – Last year he/she bought a house.\\
+**Ya nyen laste mai ruma.** – Last year he/she bought a house.\\
-**Le go a Paris den tali.** – Tomorrow they will go to Paris.\\
+**Le den tali go a Paris.** – Tomorrow they will go to Paris.\\
-**Wanita soma buku si tem .** – The woman is now reading a book.
+**Ona si tem soma buku.** – The woman is now reading a book.
-If you want, you can include the matching tense marker in such cases too – that's not wrong, just a bit verbose. Adverbs are usually placed at the end of the verb phrase; time expressions are often placed in the same position or somewhere later in the clause (say, after the object, or at the very end).
+If you want, you can include the matching tense marker in such cases too – that's not wrong, just a bit verbose. Adverbs expressing time are most typically placed between subject and verb phrase, which means that the tense marker will be placed after them, as in the first example that follows. But you can also place time adverbs elsewhere in the clause, e.g. at its end, as in the second example.
-**Ya ga lai kwai.** – He/She is about to come. / He/She will come soon.\\
+**Ya kvai ga lai.** – He/She is about to come. / He/She will come soon.\\
 **Ya li mai ruma nyen laste.** – Last year he/she bought a house.\\
@@ Line 43: / Line 43: @@
 **Mi yau to ya ba lai.** – I wish he/she would come.\\
 **Mi ba go, se mi ha tem.** – I would go if I had the time.\\
-**Ti ba abri [window] ka?** – Would/Could you open the window?
+**Ti ba abri vindo ka?** – Would/Could you open the window?
 Note that in clauses introduced with **[[conjunctions#se]]** 'if', **ba** is usually omitted, as explained in the section on that conjunction.
@@ Line 49: / Line 49: @@
 As an alternative to **ba**, adverbs such as **rubama** 'perhaps, maybe' may be used to express the speaker's attitude.
-**Ya lai rubama den tali.** – Perhaps he/she will come tomorrow. //(I do not really know whether they will come, but I consider it possible)//
+**Ya rubama den tali lai.** – Perhaps he/she will come tomorrow. //(I do not really know whether they will come, but I consider it possible)//
 **Li ba**, the combination of the past tense marker **li** with **ba**, is used for things that can no longer become true, also known as "counterfactuals". It often corresponds to 'would have' in English.
-**Ya li ba xi [teacher] hau.** – He/She would have been a good teacher. //(but for whatever reasons they chose another profession, and now it's too late)//
+**Ya li ba xi sikaja hau.** – He/She would have been a good teacher. //(but for whatever reasons they chose another profession, and now it's too late)//
 In clauses introduced with **se**, the **ba** marker is again usually considered implied, meaning that only **li** is used.
-**Se [taxi] li [arrive on time], nas no li ba [miss flight].** – If the taxi had arrived on time, we would not have missed our flight.
+**Se [taxi] li tiba ni tem, nas no li ba [miss] tara.** – If the taxi had arrived on time, we would not have missed our flight.
 **Du** is used to mark commands and requests. Linguists may call it the "imperative" and "hortative" mood.
@@ Line 64: / Line 64: @@
 **Du nulis!** – Write! //(talking to one or several persons)//\\
-**Du fa safi kamar ti!** – Clean up your room! //(talking to a single person, as the possessive pronoun makes clear)//\\
+**Du fa safi tis kamar!** – Clean up your room! //(talking to a single person, as the possessive pronoun makes clear)//\\
-**Du fa safi kamar tum!** – Clean up your room! //(talking to several persons)//
+**Du fa safi tumi kamar!** – Clean up your room! //(talking to several persons)//
 But it's not wrong to include the pronoun, if you want to – occasionally it may be useful to make it clearer whether just one person or rather a group of persons is the intended recipient.
-**Ti du fa safi kamar ya!** – Clean up her/his room! //(explicitly talking to a single person)//\\
+**Ti du fa safi yas kamar!** – Clean up her/his room! //(explicitly talking to a single person)//\\
-**Tum du fa safi kamar ya!** – Clean up her/his room! //(explicitly talking to several persons)//
+**Tum du fa safi yas kamar!** – Clean up her/his room! //(explicitly talking to several persons)//
 When addressing another group of persons, a pronoun or noun phrase identifying them must be used in the usual way. Most typically that's the case when addressing a group that includes the speaker themselves.
@@ Line 101: / Line 101: @@
 The agent responsible for an action expressed in the passive can be specified using the preposition **be** 'by'.
-**Xwan li [bite] kat.** – The dog bit the cat.\\
+**Xvan li kamu kat.** – The dog bit the cat.\\
-**Kat li bi [bite] be xwan.** – The cat was bitten by the dog.
+**Kat li bi kamu be xvan.** – The cat was bitten by the dog.
 ==== The infinitive ====
@@ Line 108: / Line 108: @@
 The verb marker **tu** introduces the infinitive. It is used between verbs to connect them to //verbs chains//.
-**Mi yau tu xwo.** – I want to speak.\\
+**Mi yau tu xvo.** – I want to speak.\\
 **Ti ama tu nulis.** – You love to write.
@@ Line 120: / Line 120: @@
 **tu bi ...** – to be shot\\
 **tu li bi ...** – having been shot\\
-**Ya deklara tu li ingi ama ya.** – She/He declared to have loved her/him very much.
+**Ya deklara ingi tu li ama ya.** – She/He declared to have loved her/him very much.
 In the most typical case, the subject of the first verb implicitly applies to any chained verbs as well.
@@ Line 128: / Line 128: @@
 But one can also use the infinitive if the first verb clearly indicates that some other person or group is addressed.
-**Mi minta tu xwo lugamun.** – I request that one speaks Lugamun.
+**Mi minta tu xvo lugamun.** – I request that one speaks Lugamun.
-Verbs used with **tu** never have an explicitly expressed subject, but they
+It's also possible to explicitly express the subject of the chained verb, by adding a noun phrase or pronoun before the **tu**.
-can have an object.
-**Tu dansa tango no asan.** – Dancing tango is not easy.
+**Le no ga permit ya tu fa it.** – They won't permit her to do it.\\
+**Yo sikaja minta yo baca tu xvo ruski.** – The teachers request the children to speak Russian.
-Verbs preceded by **tu** can be considered as hybrids between regular verbs and nouns. On the one hand, they can be used as subject of a clause, just like any other noun. On the other hand, when used after another verb, they are //not// considered as object, but rather as part of a verb chain. Hence they are never preceded by **o**.
+Such chained verbs with a subject are equivalent to subordinate clauses introduced by **[[dependent clauses#to]]**. Instead of the above, one could equally well say:
-**Mi yau tu aprende tu dansa tango.** – I want to learn to dance (the) tango. / I want to learn to tango dancing.
+**Le no ga permit to ya fa it.** – They won't permit that she does it.\\
+**Yo sikaja minta to yo baca xvo ruski.** – The teachers request that the children speak Russian.
-(XXX Probably revise this?) In English, verbs in the infinitive can have a subject of their own, which at the same time is the object of another, superordinate verb. Such a construct does not exist in Lugamun – instead one can use [[dependent clauses#subordinate clauses]], typically introduced by **to**, to express such cases.
+Outside of verb chains, verbs used with **tu** never have an explicitly expressed subject. But regardless of where they are used, they can have an object.
+**Tu dansa tango no asan.** – Dancing tango is not easy.\\
+**Mi yau tu dansa tango gen ti.** – I want to dance tango with you.\\
+**Mi yau ti tu dansa tango gen mi.** – I want you to dance tango with me.\\
+**Mi yau Tina tu nulis buku.** – I want Tina to write a book.
+Verbs preceded by **tu** can be considered as hybrids between regular verbs and nouns. On the one hand, they can be used as subject of a clause, just like any other noun. On the other hand, when used after another verb, they are //not// considered as object, but rather as part of a verb chain. Hence they are never preceded by **o**.
-**Mi yau to Tina nulis buku.** – I want that Tina writes a book. / I want Tina to write a book.
+**Mi yau tu aprende tu dansa (o) tango.** – I want to learn to dance (the) tango. / I want to learn to tango dancing.
 ===== Auxiliary verbs =====
@@ Line 156: / Line 164: @@
 XXX Give some examples.
-Additionally, the suffix **-u** can be used to turn a normal verb into an auxiliary one. If the verb ends in a vowel, its final vowel is replaced by **u**, as per the usual rules of [[word formation#suffixes|word formation]]. This suffix can be quite convenient since it removes the need to put **tu** between two chained verbs.
+Additionally, the suffix **-u** (or occasionally **-t**) can be used to turn a normal verb into an auxiliary one. The usual rules of [[word formation#suffixes|word formation]] apply, which means that for verbs ending in a vowel, its final vowel is in most cases replaced by **u**. Only if the final vowel is the sole vowel in the verb, it is preserved, so that the auxiliary form of **fa** is **fau** (with a diphthong). This too follows the general rules.
-**Mi amu nulis.** – I love to write.
+This suffix can be quite convenient since it removes the need to put **tu** between two chained verbs.
-**-u** is especially useful in fixed expressions made up of two verbs, such as **kaixu cwan** 'put on, don' (begin to wear). Such expressions could be quite heavy if an additional **tu** was needed as well, hence they are commonly used with the **-u** suffix and are usually listed only in this form in the dictionary. Nevertheless, the **tu** form is always possible as well, so if you prefer saying **kaixi tu cwan**, you certainly can.
+**Mi amu nulis.** – I love to write.
-Usually **-u** is only used on verbs that end in a vowel, since this reduces the number of syllables compared to the version using **tu**. If a verb ends in a consonant, the number of syllables stays unchanged, so there is little reason for using **-u**. Also, it is rarely used with verbs that have just one syllable, since such verbs are still nicely short even if followed by **tu**.
+It is especially useful in fixed expressions made up of two verbs, such as **kaixu cvan** 'put on, don' (begin to wear). Such expressions could be quite heavy if an additional **tu** was needed as well, hence they are commonly used with this suffix and are usually listed only in this form in the dictionary. Nevertheless, the **tu** form is always possible as well, so if you prefer saying **kaixi tu cvan**, you certainly can.
-Note that **-u** cannot be used with verbs that already end in a simple **-u**, because in this case the auxiliary form of the verb would be indistinguishable from the normal one. In such cases, **tu** must be used instead.
+If a verbs ends in a standalone **-u** (which is not part of a diphthong), then **-u** cannot be added to it, since the resulting auxiliary version would be identical to the original verb. In such cases, one can use the alternative suffix **-t** (if one doesn't want to use the full **tu** marker). For example, the auxiliary version of **kontinu** 'continue, go on' is **kontinut**. (As a memory guide: both **-u** and **-t** are derived from **tu**, through shortening.)
-Auxiliaries formed using the **-u** suffix are never re-used as nouns, since there is no need to do so – the original form of the word is used instead (e.g. **kaixi**).
+Auxiliaries formed using the **-u/-t** suffix are never re-used as nouns, since there is no need to do so – the original form of the word is used instead (e.g. **kaixi**).
 XXX Mention that adverbs, other verb markers, and determiners may still interrupt verb chains and give some examples.
@@ Line 172: / Line 180: @@
 ===== The copula =====
-The copula **xi** – translated as a form of 'be' in this context – connects a noun phrase with an adjective or noun phrase that describes it. If a adjective follows, it can be and often is omitted, but if a noun phrase follows, it should always be used. Note that the expression that follows **xi** is considered a //complement// rather than an object, therefore it never takes the object marker **o**.
+The copula **xi** – translated as a form of 'be' in this context – connects a noun phrase with an adjective or noun phrase that describes it. If a adjective follows, it can be and often is omitted, but if a noun phrase or a prepositional phrase follows, it should always be used. Note that an adjective or noun phrase that follows **xi** is considered a //complement// rather than an object, therefore it never takes the object marker **o**.
+So if an adjective follows, **xi** is typically omitted:
 **Ti (xi) ingi dulse.** – You're really sweet.\\
 **Uma (xi) bai.** – The horse is white.\\
 **Ya (xi) mardi den laste .** – Yesterday he/she was ill.\\
-**Ya xi baba hau.** – 'He's a good father.'\\
-**Ta wanita xi [actor] maxuhur.** – That woman is a famous actress.
+Note that, if a a time expression (or another expression including a noun or a preposition) is placed after the subject, **xi** should always be used, to prevent possible confusion:
+**Ya den laste xi mardi.** – Yesterday he/she was ill.\\
+**Xi** it always used before a noun or preposition:
+**Ya xi baba hau.** – He's a good father.\\
+**Ta ona xi [actor] maxuhur.** – That woman is a famous actress.\\
+**Le xi ni ruma.** – They're at home / They're in the house.\\
+**Mi xi de Barat.** – I'm from India. //(I was born there or usually live there)//
 The negated form of the copula is just **no** – **xi** is never used in this case.
@@ Line 192: / Line 211: @@
 **Uma gran xi lela.**
+//Rationale:// That the copula is required before noun phrases and locative phrases, but (typically) omitted before adjectives, follows the typical patterns in the majority of all languages (WALS 120) and specifically in creoles (APiCS 73–75).
 ===== Other verbs with a complement =====
-Several other verbs are likewise commonly followed by a complement: an adjective or noun that complements their meaning. Such complements immediately follow the verb, and they may be followed by an object or a prepositional phrase. While the object marker **o** is usually optional, after a complement it //must// be used, since otherwise there might be some confusion about where the complement ends and the object starts.
+XXX Maybe call these "copulas" as well and use a term such as "standard copula" when referring to **xi**?
+Several other verbs are likewise commonly followed by a complement: an adjective or noun that complements their meaning. Such complements immediately follow the verb, and they may be followed by an object or a prepositional phrase. While the object marker **o** is usually optional, after a complement it //must// be used, since otherwise there might be some confusion about where the complement ends and the object starts. If a verb with a complement also takes an object, the complement refers to the object, otherwise it refers to the subject. These include, but aren't limited to:
   * **ban** – become
   * **fa** – do, make
+  * **sente** – feel, sense
   * **xyende** – seem, look (like), appear
-XXX Give some examples – of the verbs listed here, only **fa** can take a direct object (introduced by **o**)?
+Examples:
+**Mi ga ban (president).** – I will become president.\\
+**Le ga fa (president) o mi.**– They will make me president.\\
+**Mi si den sente glupi glupi.** – I feel very stupid today.\\
+**On li pentoda lal o ruma.** – They have painted the house red.
 Determiners referring to the complement are placed before it, as usual. Adverbs referring to the verb phrase are usually placed at the end of the verb phrase, i.e., after the complement.
@@ Line 209: / Line 238: @@
 ===== Subjectless verbs =====
-A few verbs have a special meaning when used without a subject.
+When used without a subject, **ha** means 'there is, there are'.
-Subjectless **ha** means 'there is, there are'.
+**Ha ona ni dor.** – There is a woman at the door.
-**Ha wanita ni dor.** – There is a woman at the door.
+Generally a subjectless verb is used in cases there where is no actual entity that could be used as subject. English typically uses a generic 'it' in such cases.
-Subjectless **xi** is used to describe the weather. In such expressions, it often corresponds to English 'it's / it is'.
+**Xyende to ya no lai si den.** – It seems he/she won't come today.\\
+**Xi sedi to nas no bisa go ta ples.** – It's sad we can't do there.
-**Xi garam garam si den.** – It's very hot today.
+Often, subject **xi** followed by a verb or adjective refers to the weather.
+**Xi garam garam si den.** – It's very hot today.\\
+**Xi ren den tali.** – It'll rain tomorrow.
+While **xi** between a subject and an adjective is often omitted, when there is no subject, it's better to include it for clarity.
+//Rationale:// There is no info on this in WALS, but according to APiCS, most pidgins and creoles don't use an "expletive" subject (i.e. a subject that doesn't really refer to anything) in existential verb constructions corresponding to English 'there is'. We follow this usage, choosing a widely used pattern to express 'there is/are'. For consistency, we treat other expressions where the subject would be expletive the same way.
 ===== Negation =====
@@ Line 223: / Line 260: @@
 The negation particle **no** 'not' is usually placed before the verb.
-But noun phrases can also be negated when this is needed: 'No person could have done it.' / 'No (other) doctor is better than her.'
+If the subject or object is a negated pronoun (such as **no jen** 'no one, nobody' or **no xos** 'nothing') or if the clause includes a negated adverbial phrase (such as **no ples** 'nowhere' or **no tem** 'never'), the verb is negated as well. In contrast to English, such a "double negative" doesn't cancel itself out, but rather affirms the negative expression. This is known as //emphatic negation//.
-If the subject or object is a negated pronoun ('nobody', 'nothing' etc.), the verb is negated as well.
-XXX Likely this is also the case with other negated noun phrases as mentioned above, and with negated time expressions such as 'never' and 'nowhere'?
+**Alisa no ha no xos gi tu fa.** – Alice had nothing to do.\\
+**"Mi no tem no li miru it", man xvo.** – "I've never seen it," the man said.
-XXX Explain that determiners, including **no**, are placed after verb markers.
+XXX Explain that quantifiers and selectors, including **no**, are placed after verb markers.
-**Mi li no miru ya.** – I didn't see him/her.
+**Mi no li miru ya.** – I didn't see him/her.
 XXX Explain how negation works in verb chains and with auxiliaries: **debe no** 'must not' vs. **no debe** 'doesn't have to'.
@@ Line 239: / Line 275: @@
 A complete verb phrase, with just a single verb but including everything else that can potentially occur in a verb phrase, will have the following order:
-> verb markers – determiners – verb – complement – adverbs
+> determiners – verb markers – verb – complement – adverbs
 The whole verb phrase may be preceded by a time expression, but such expressions are not considered a part of the verb phrase itself. Complements may themselves be preceded by determiners referring to them, but this is not shown here, to stop things from getting too complicated.