Chapter 19 Subordinate clauses
Adverbial clauses
Adverbial clauses place an event in relation to another event. Phi marks sequence, overlap, cause, purpose, and concession with six clause relators. Each relator opens the dependent material, and that complete frame precedes the main clause it modifies.
All six use one order:
[relator] [dependent clause] [main clause]
The order is shared; the relation is not. The first five locate or qualify an event, while lila states an agent's intended outcome.
Sequence: pheo and phoe
pheo introduces the earlier event and places the main event after it:
pheo melu to kamo lo mia to haolu.
POST friend PST arrive PL 1SG PST speak.
phoe introduces the later reference event and places the main event before it:
phoe lo mia to haolu mia to thilonu.
ANT PL 1SG PST speak 1SG PST prepare.
Each clause carries the tense appropriate to its own event. The dependent verb marks the point at which the main clause begins; neither relator takes a closer.
The same words can stand over a counted duration rather than a clause:
melu phoe wi philo to kamo.
friend ANT two day PST arrive.
The past to belongs to kamo. phoe wi philo supplies the distance from now rather than acting as a tense marker.
A temporal endpoint: tei
tei is a preposition, not a clause relator. It introduces the noun phrase that marks how long an action or state continues.
mia tei howai thole.
1SG UNTIL evening practice.
lo lopia tei howai wile.
PL child UNTIL evening play.
Morning or evening names the endpoint. No second clause is hidden inside the phrase.
Overlap: whau
whau puts two events in one span without ordering them. The dependent clause supplies the span, and the main clause reports what fell inside it:
whau phao lumoi phelu moloi phelasi sheraki.
SIMUL parent lantern hold apprentice shelf search.
Neither event is earlier and neither causes the other. Aspect is free on both verbs, and si on the framing verb adds that its event was already under way:
whau pheralu si lepa lo mia mua keritha to manolu.
SIMUL rain IPFV fall PL 1SG LOC workshop PST stay.
sui (DUR) does the same job for a noun, so lo mia sui pheralu mua keritha to manolu says we stayed during the rain. Choose between them by asking whether the span has an actor. A stretch of weather does not, and takes sui. An act does, and under sui that actor would be reduced to owning an event noun, where whau lets the actor keep the verb.
Cause: lao
lao places a reason before the assertion it explains. It may introduce a complete clause:
lao pheralu to nai ruela wirua nai.
BECAUSE rain PST be path wet be.
lao mia to ma sheluo mia to ma shelomu.
BECAUSE 1SG PST NEG listen 1SG PST NEG understand.
It may also introduce a noun phrase:
lao pheralu ruela wirua nai.
BECAUSE rain path wet be.
lao marks the reason the speaker claims. Other contributing causes, and any question of responsibility, remain available for further sentences.
Purpose: lila
lila introduces an intended outcome before the action undertaken for it:
lila mia shonela mia theo.
PURP 1SG learn 1SG read.
lila lo miona shelomu shia haolu.
PURP PL person understand 3SG speak.
The subject of the purpose clause may match the actor in the main clause, as in the first example, or differ, as in the second. The listener hears the intended outcome before the action, and that order is one of Phi's quietest commitments: the hoped-for thing is named before the deed done for it, so a purpose clause always says what the work is for before the work begins. An unintended result takes lao or a separate consequence.
The freedom construction gives lila another established use:
thia lila wepu ralu nai.
2SG PURP go free be.
Here the action names the respect in which the subject is free. Absence of obligation is expressed as an open course, not by moving negation out of its fixed rank.
Concession: shai
shai introduces a circumstance that raises an expectation which the main clause overturns:
shai pheralu to ma nai lo peloru thuroa.
CONC rain PST NEG be PL flower grow.
shai shelira thiku nai shelira mioru nai.
CONC forest small be forest beautiful be.
Like lao, shai can also introduce a noun phrase:
shai pheralu lo peloru thuroa.
CONC rain PL flower grow.
The expectation belongs to the speaker's framing. shai does not declare smallness contrary to beauty in every setting; it says that this sentence treats it as a conceded circumstance.
The six clause relators
| Relator | Gloss | Relation | Order |
|---|---|---|---|
pheo | POST | after | dependent clause, then main clause |
phoe | ANT | before | dependent clause, then main clause |
whau | SIMUL | overlap | dependent clause, then main clause |
lao | BECAUSE | cause | dependent clause or noun phrase, then main clause |
shai | CONC | concession | dependent clause or noun phrase, then main clause |
lila | PURP | intended outcome | dependent clause, then main clause |
The final verb in each dependent clause supplies its boundary. With lila, the purpose arrives first and closes before the action it explains begins.