Phi practice Adverbial clauses in Phi

Reading 8 of 11

Part 7

The frame and the main clause

A frame changes nothing about the clause it modifies. Once the dependent verb has closed the frame, the main clause begins with its full ordinary rights: subject first, adjunct phrases before the object, Slot 1 before the verb.

01The dependent clause is a whole clause

Inside the frame, the clause is not a reduced or infinitive thing. It carries its own tense, its own negation, its own particles:

lao mia to ma sheluo mia to ma shelomu.

BECAUSE 1SG PST NEG listen 1SG PST NEG understand.

(Because I did not listen, I did not understand.)

Two clauses, two independent Slot 1 stacks, and neither borrows from the other. When the frame's event and the main event sit in different times, say both times; the relator will not say either for you.

02The main clause keeps its shape

Adjunct phrases in the main clause stand where they always stand, before the object position, and a time phrase sits in its ordinary slot after the subject:

lila mia lo silero nila mia sui norawhi thalo.

PURP 1SG PL star see 1SG DUR dusk walk.

(In order to see the stars, I walk at dusk.)

The frame does not use up the sentence's ordinary machinery. Everything a plain sentence may carry, a framed sentence may carry too.

03Hearing the seam

With no closer, the seam between frame and main clause is the dependent verb followed by the main subject. Reading aloud, the seam is where a listener's parse turns over: the frame's last verb lands, and the next noun begins something new. The drill is simply to find it.

Practicefind the seam

Mark where each frame ends and say what closes it.

  1. pheo melu to kamo lo mia to haolu.
  2. shai pheralu lo peloru thuroa.
  3. lila lo miona shelomu shia haolu.

Answers: 1 The frame ends at kamo, its own verb; lo mia opens the main clause. 2 The frame ends at pheralu, because a noun-phrase concession has no verb to wait for; the plural marker on the flowers opens the main clause. 3 The frame ends at shelomu, and shia begins the speaking. In every case the boundary is audible without a closing word, which is exactly the design: the frame announces itself at its first word and completes itself at its last.