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parsing



In a message dated 2002-09-06 11:42:09 AM Eastern Daylight Time, sts@hidden.email writes:


    The chef entered the hot dry kitchen and put the bread on
      the stove.
    Fudinja mebyo meto bunansa mensa ne javodimba caswa mespu.

when i parse these, which i do several times for each lesson, just because it's fun, i do it like this:
modals and words like "kiku", "viva", which directly modify the verb stay on the same line as the verb. whenever a word requires a following word to complete it, such as a verb, open noun, open adjective, or case tag, that following word goes on the next line and indented from the initial word.  if the following word modifies what precedes it, it stays on the same line and simply follows it as it does in the original.  a conjunction conjoins two identical elements, so i put the conjunction on a separate line in line with the elements it joins.   adjectives joined by a conjunction i mark with an ellipsis ("...") to indicate that it's NOT the noun that is being conjoined.

e.g.:

Fudinja
       mebyo
       meto bunansa mensa
ne
javodimba
       caswa
       mespu.

since the word after 'ne' is also a verb, it has to link to the preceding verb.  any number of arguments can follow a verb; only the core arguments are determined by the default or ccm, and the core arguments always occur in the order agent-patient-focus.
oblique arguments can occur anywhere after the verb - even before the subject.  this took me a while to figure out, and sometimes it's a little hard to keep straight, as in this example:

[from "visomu" entry in K-E:]
Pi fomensanta xeku gasande pemwa dofoy lexesya xesomu tane lexesya visomu = During our trip, the near-to-last days were warmer than the last days.

Pi fomensanta xeku
       gasande
             pemwa dofoy
       lexesya xesomu
       tane
       lexesya visomu

here the subject is "lexesya xesomu tane lexesya visomu", and it's preceded by the oblique argument "gasande pemwa dofoy".  i have trouble with it because of the separation between the verb and its subject.

an even better (worse?) example is:

[vezdinga:]
>Vezdinga fudi tanze te lisne mi cayvyu zumyu va = In the dog's mouth, I noticed some red meat.

Vezdinga
       fudi
             tanze te
                   lisne
       mi
       cayvyu zumyu va

where "mi" is the subject.

or this one:
[xopsi:]
Mesimpa lexopsi fokogo tufoy dindu tato mi = Your stupid actions in the auditorium made me angry.

Mesimpa
       lexopsi fokogo tufoy dindu
             tato
       mi

in this last example, by the time i get to "mi" at the end of the sentence, i have already forgotten what the verb was.  (for some reason, i never had this problem with german verbs at the end of the sentence.  :-) 

Stevo