140,341
edits
Suwáá/Unknown: Difference between revisions
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
m
→Relative clauses
| Line 1,576: | Line 1,576: | ||
As is the case in most European languages, but unlike in e.g. Arabic, relative pronouns agree with the gender and number of the head, but are case-marked for their syntactic position within the relative clause. | As is the case in most European languages, but unlike in e.g. Arabic, relative pronouns agree with the gender and number of the head, but are case-marked for their syntactic position within the relative clause. | ||
In elevated language, when the head represents the 1st or 2nd person, the verb in the relative clause may be conjugated to that person. | In elevated language, when the head represents the 1st or 2nd person, the verb or copula in the relative clause may be conjugated to that person. | ||
The choice of the relative pronoun depends on the definiteness/specificity of the noun. Specific referents use ''ve'' as the relative pronoun, whereas indefinite or hypothetical nouns use ''mǫ'' (animate)/''ma'' (inanimate). | The choice of the relative pronoun depends on the definiteness/specificity of the noun. Specific referents use ''ve'' as the relative pronoun, whereas indefinite or hypothetical nouns use ''mǫ'' (animate)/''ma'' (inanimate). | ||