Phi practice Adverbial clauses in Phi

Reading 6 of 11

Part 5

Purpose: lila

lila opens an intended outcome, and the whole frame stands before the action undertaken for it:

lila mia shonela mia theo.

PURP 1SG learn 1SG read.

(I read in order to learn.)

The listener hears what the work is for before the work begins. Nothing else in the grammar bends for purpose: canon rules a postposed purpose frame ungrammatical, with no exception for any clause type, so the English order, deed first and purpose trailing, has no Phi counterpart to translate into.

The purpose clause keeps its own subject, which may match the main actor or differ from it:

lila lo miona shelomu shia haolu.

PURP PL person understand 3SG speak.

(They speak so that the people understand.)

One speaker, many understanders. The frame says whose outcome is intended; the main clause says who acts for it.

01Intended is the whole word

lila claims intention. An outcome nobody aimed at is not a purpose, however neatly it followed: the wet path after rain takes lao, and a result worth its own statement takes its own sentence, with thelao if the conclusion should be drawn aloud. Writing lila over an accident quietly awards the world a plan it did not have.

02The freedom construction is its own house

lila has one other established home, and it is not an adverbial frame:

thia lila wepu ralu nai.

2SG PURP go free be.

(You need not go.)

Here lila wepu names the respect in which the subject is free, and ralu nai predicates the freedom. Absence of obligation is stated as presence of freedom; negation stays in its fixed rank and nothing moves. The two constructions share a word and nothing else: the purpose frame opens a sentence and precedes a main clause, while the freedom construction sits inside one clause around its own predicate. Hearing lila therefore asks one quick question: is a main clause coming, or is ralu nai?

Practiceput the purpose first

  1. In order to see the stars, I walk at dusk. Build it.
  2. They cook so that the guests eat. Build it.
  3. Say that the child is free as to playing.

Answers: 1 lila mia lo silero nila mia sui norawhi thalo. The seeing frame completes at nila, and the main clause keeps its own shape, the time phrase before the verb. 2 lila lo phemi nuola shia pharelo. The intended outcome belongs to the guests; the cooking belongs to the actor. 3 lopia lila wile ralu nai. No main clause follows, because this is the freedom construction: playing is the respect in which the child is free.