11. Mıu jí, ꝡá… / I think that…
Let’s look at how to create more complex Toaq sentences: ones that involve subclauses.
Vocabulary
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ruaq | ▯ states that ▯ |
| zoaı | ▯ doubts that ▯ |
| mıu | ▯ opines that ▯ |
| chı | ▯ believes that ▯ |
| dua | ▯ knows that ▯ |
| cuo | ▯ assumes that ▯ |
| aojaı | ▯ wants that ▯ |
| zaı | ▯ hopes that ▯ |
| juna | it’s true that ▯ |
| sahu | it’s false that ▯ |
| le | it’s likely that ▯ |
| laheq | ▯ entails/implies ▯ |
| dana | ▯ defeats ▯ |
Content clauses
A content clause is introduced by ꝡá, which means “that”. It turns the following clause into a noun phrase, so that it can act as the subject or object of another clause.
Jıa dana súq nháo.
You will defeat him.Chı jí, ꝡá jıa dana súq nháo.
I believe that you will defeat him.
A verb can relate two content clauses. For example, the following sentence uses laheq “▯ entails/implies ▯”.
Laheq, ꝡá zudeq súq Tóaqzu, ꝡá Toaqpoq súq.
The fact that you speak Toaq implies that you’re a Toaqist.
In Toaq, we write commas around the start and end of a subclause.
Terminators
If ꝡá marks the beginning of a content clause, how do we mark the end? Doesn’t that last example sentence need a terminator, like Lojban’s kei?
A Toaq parser just looks at the arity of the verb to figure out where the clause ends. Zudeq has two slots, so after súq and Tóaqzu, what follows can’t be a third argument, and instead the clause must end here.
Trailing adverbs belong to a subclause, if possible. Consider this pair of sentences:
Ruaq jí, ꝡá noqgı ké haq râo fíachaq.
I state that the food was good yesterday.
Ruaq râo fíachaq jí, ꝡá noqgı ké haq.
I stated yesterday that the food is good.
Scope islands
In Chapter 7, we learned about how tú koqpıuta wraps the clause it’s in with a for each computer. Now that we are dealing with subclauses, it finally matters that we said “clause” instead of “sentence.”
Zoaı nháo, ꝡá zujoe súq tú zu da.
She doubts that you are fluent in each language.
Words like ꝡá create scope islands, and any “scope operator” (like tú or bu) applies to the innermost scope island containing it.
We can mark scope islands using rectangles. A word like tú has its “for-each” apply to the smallest rectangle it’s in:
↓
∄p: p thinksthat it's likely∃x: ∀z: x speaks z.
Nobody thinks it's likely that somebody speaks every language.
The word ꝡa
The word ꝡa, in the falling tone, marks the start of a main clause, and thus the start of a sentence.
Saying ꝡa doesn’t change the meaning of a sentence, but you can say it while thinking of what to say next, or just to clearly mark that you’re starting a new sentence.
Ꝡa… jıa faq hí raı?
So… what’s going to happen?Ꝡa fa áma ké saodoaq dâ.
We’re going to the city.
The word ꝡä
In official Toaq Delta, ꝡä is used instead of ꝡá to make content clauses.
Chı jí, ꝡä jıa dana súq nháo.
I believe that you will defeat him.
This textbook adopts the idea that ꝡä ꝡë attach to nouns while ꝡá ꝡé introduce clauses that stand on their own.
Chı jí, ꝡá jıa dana súq nháo.
I believe that you will defeat him.Chı jí ké chıse, ꝡä jıa dana súq nháo.
I hold the belief that you will defeat him.
In other words, ꝡá is short for ké raı ꝡä and ꝡé is short for ké raı ꝡë.
Cho jí, ꝡé fıeq súq hóa.
I like what you invent.Cho jí ké lua, ꝡë fıeq súq hóa.
I like the stories that you invent.