Complementizer phrases

In this section, we will only concern ourselves with subordinate complementizer phrases. The understanding gained here will carry over to matrix clause complementizers, which are dealt with in their own section.

This is the full list of complementizers:

	declarative or non-polar
lâ	declarative or non-polar
mâ	polar interrogative
tîo	quantitative interrogative

The most common complementizer is a bare tone, which latches onto the verbal complex of the subordinate clause. When the subordinate clause begins with a topic, then the tone requires la as carrier. In other words, both and lâ start a declarative or non-polar interrogative subordinate clause, but only lâ can be followed by a topic.

	Dủa	jí	chô	súq	ní	da.
	know	I	that-like	you	this	ASS
	"I know that you like this."

This is equivalent to:

	Dủa	jí	lâ	chỏ	súq	ní	da.
	know	I	that	like	you	this	ASS
	"I know that you like this."

The following example includes a topic:

	Dủa	jí	lâ	níchaq	bı	rủqshua.
	know	I	that	today	TOP	rain
	"I know that as for today, it’s raining."

Non-polar interrogative subordinate clauses work the same way, with and/or lâ, but they contain a question word like “who”, “what”, “where”, etc.

	Dủa	jí	tî	máq	hı	rảı.
	know	I	that-at	itII	which	thing
	"I know where it is."

Polar interrogative subordinate clauses are introduced by the complementizer mâ:

	Dủashao	jí	mâ	pủ	kảqgaı	nháo	jí.
	wonder	I	whether	PST	see	they	I
	"I wonder whether they saw me."

	Mỏaqshaı	déo	mâ	hảı	lủı	chủq	hó.
	forget	the-child	whether	already	PRF	eat	itI
	"The child forgot whether it had already eaten."

	Tủa	árane	jâra	jí.
	make	the-spider	that-run	I
	"The spider made me run."

Properties

Properties can be compared to infinitives or non-finite clauses in English, except that Toaq’s properties are much more flexible and allow for an unlimited amount of complexity.

Properties are content clauses that contain one or more “open places“, which are marked by determiner phrases headed by the determiner ja.

	Lẻo	jí	nûo	ja	rảı.
	try	I	that-sleep	λ	thing
	"I try to satisfy ‘X sleeps’ (i.e. I try to sleep)."

If the reader is familiar with lambda calculus, the property nûo ja rảı “to sleep” can be understood as “λraı. raı sleeps”, where raı is the name of the variable.

Most simple properties can be avoided by using a serial verb:

	Lẻo	nủo	jí
	try	sleep	I
	“I try to sleep.”

However, properties offer flexibility and additional expressive power, which is useful every now and then:

	Lỉecho	súq	kâqsı	jí	ja	rảı.
	like	you	that-watch	I	λ	thing
	"You like satisfying ‘I watch X’ (i.e. You like being watched by me)."

	Nỉeq	nháo	tûa	ja	rảı	chô	jí	ráı.
	unskilled	they	that-make	λ	thing	that-like	I	the-thing
	"They are bad at satisfying ‘X makes me like X’ (i.e. They are bad at making me like them)."

Relative clauses

Relative clauses follow their heads. They are introduced by the complementizers and lä. As with content clauses, only the latter permits the inclusion of a topic in the relative clause.

	gúobe	chüq	hóa	baq	pỏıba
	the-cow	which-eat	itRES	GEN	grass
	"the cow that is eating grass"

	sa	pỏq	büa	hó	tì	ní
	some	person	which-inhabit	itI	P-at	this
	"some people who live here"

Relative clauses must contain a reference to their head. This can be achieved with the dedicated resumptive pronoun hóa, with an ordinary pronoun which matches the pronominal class of the head, or with verbatim repetition with (see binding rules).

	sa	zẻo	pü	chủq	jí	hóa
	some	fruit	which-PST	eat	I	itRES
	"some fruits that I ate"

	tuq	rảı	möaq	jí	chô	súq	hóa
	all	thing	which-remember	I	that-like	you	itRES
	"all things which I remember you like"

	jío	büa	jí	máq
	the-building	which-inhabit	I	itII
	"the building I live in"

	sa	chỏme	tüa	kúne	têa	chóme
	some	insect	which-make	the-dog	that-afraid	the-insect
	"“some insect that the dog made scared"

Like all complementizer phrases, relative clauses are terminated by the particle cy, which is usually omitted. It is used when a relative clause is followed by post-field material which is not part of the relative clause:

	Kảqsı	kúne	chüq	hó	cy	jí.
	watch	the-dog	which-eat	itI	cy	I
	"The dog who is eating is looking at me."

Without cy, the word jí would be taken to be part of the relative clause where it would fill the second argument place of chuq, yielding “The dog who is eating me is looking”.

The relative clauses discussed in this section are restrictive. For non-restrictive clauses, see the section on incidental clauses.