Chapter 7: Brevity Is The Soul Of Language: Pro-sumti And Pro-bridi

10. Relativized pro-sumti: “ke'a”

The following cmavo are discussed in this section:

ke'a    KOhA            relativized sumti

This pro-sumti is used in relative clauses (explained in Chapter 8) to indicate how the sumti being relativized fits within the clause. For example:

✥10.1    mi catlu lo mlatu
    poi [zo'e] zbasu
        ke'a
        lei slasi
I see a cat such-that
    something-unspecified makes
        the-thing-being-relativized [the cat]
        from-some-mass-of plastic.
I see a cat made of plastic.

If “ke'a” were omitted from ✥10.1, it might be confused with:

✥10.2    mi catlu lo mlatu poi [ke'a]
    zbasu lei slasi
I see a cat such-that the-thing-being-relativized
    [the cat] makes a-mass-of plastic
I see a cat that makes plastic.

The anaphora cmavo “ri” cannot be used in place of “ke'a” in ✥10.1 and ✥10.2, because the relativized sumti is not yet complete when the “ke'a” appears.

Note that “ke'a” is used only with relative clauses, and not with other embedded bridi such as abstract descriptions. In the case of relative clauses within relative clauses, “ke'a” may be subscripted to make the difference clear (see Chapter 8).