Simple sentences

Abstract

Embroidering the distinction made in the chapter (18) on negation, this chapter discusses the full spectrum of simple sentences with a nominal predicate based on a noun, genitive-possessive construction, question-word, pronoun, demonstrative, and copular forms. Furthermore, negated and question forms, as well as combinations thereof, are discussed for these types of predicate. Besides a preliminary account of ordering principles for the noun phrase, special attention is given to copular forms of possessive nouns and inflected pronouns. Existential predicatesare: var ‘there is’ and its negational counterpart yok. Such structures are essential when it comes to expressing availability or possession. The final section is on verbal predicates, showing that there are two ordering patterns for the relative positions of the question particle and personal endings.