Chapter 20 Relative clauses
Headless relative clauses
Sometimes context supplies the thing being described. In that case the whu clause occupies a noun-phrase position without an explicit head: "the one who" or "what."
A referent supplied by context
whu mia to nila ha nai.
REL 1SG PST see PROX be.
No noun follows the relative predicate nila. The complete headless phrase whu mia to nila is the subject of ha nai. Context must tell the listener whether the referent is a person or anything else that can be seen.
mia whu thia to kealo theo.
1SG REL 2SG PST create read.
Here whu thia to kealo is the object of theo. English supplies "what"; Phi leaves the category open.
Specific and general reference
A headless relative can point to one established referent or range over anyone or anything that fits the description. The surrounding sentence makes the difference:
whu thia to kealo mioru nai.
REL 2SG PST create beautiful be.
whu lo lopia thumela ha nai.
REL PL child teach PROX be.
whu thalo roke.
REL walk move.
The first example recovers a particular creation from the conversation. The second identifies a person by their present role without naming a permanent class. The third ranges over anyone who fits its description.
whu remains
Dropping an established subject is ordinary topic-drop. Dropping whu is not the same operation. Without the relativizer, a listener receives content words but no grammatical signal that the whole clause occupies a noun-phrase position.
Every canonical headless relative therefore begins with whu. The word remains useful even in a short phrase because it distinguishes "what you created" from the ordinary statement "you created."
Asking about identity
wa whu ha kealo thia nai.
Q REL PROX create 2SG be.
The headless phrase whu ha kealo is the subject, and thia is the identity being tested. The question names the relation to the action without assigning the referent a role noun.
A headed relative ends by naming its category. A headless relative declines to do so. Both keep whu, and both leave one role inside the description for the referent to fill.
And that is the last grammar lesson in the book. The sounds, the word shapes, the thirty-eight particles, the clause, and now the ways clauses join, turn, carry, and describe one another: all of it is behind you. Part VI is not more grammar. It is what speakers do with it, courtesy and consent, transmutation, a life lived partly in the language. Part I promised that this book would teach the instrument. You are holding it now; the rest is music.