Part 5 · complex — Chapter 19 · subordinate clauses

Complement clauses

A complement clause is a sentence that functions as the object of another verb. In English: "I know that she left." The italicized portion is a complete thought that serves as the thing known.

Phi uses two complementizer pairs for this: mena/meno for embedded statements and wela/welo for embedded yes/no questions.

Embedded statements: mena / meno

The declarative complementizer mena announces that what follows is a statement being treated as an object. Its required closer meno marks where that embedded statement ends, so the main verb can follow without ambiguity. The pair works like spoken parentheses around the embedded thought.

mia mena shia to wepu meno sano.
1SG DECL.COMP 3SG PST go DECL.COMP.CLOSE know.
(I know that they left.)

mia mena sorae sulae nai meno phaelo.
1SG DECL.COMP sun warm be DECL.COMP.CLOSE feel.
(I feel that the sun is warm.)

shia mena thia so kamo meno haolu.
3SG DECL.COMP 2SG FUT arrive DECL.COMP.CLOSE speak.
(They say that you will arrive.)

The structure is consistent: mena opens the embedded clause, the clause unfolds with its own subject, objects, and particles, meno closes it, and then the main verb arrives. Without meno, the boundary between the embedded verb and the main verb would be ambiguous; two verbs in a row with no marker between them.

Nesting

mena/meno clauses can nest inside each other when one embedded thought contains another. Each mena requires its own meno, and they resolve from the inside out, like matched parentheses:

mia mena thia mena shia to wepu meno phaelo meno sano.
1SG DECL.COMP 2SG DECL.COMP 3SG PST go DECL.COMP.CLOSE feel DECL.COMP.CLOSE know.
(I know that you feel that they left.)

Count the mena markers, count the meno markers; they always match. The innermost meno closes the innermost mena, and each verb belongs to its own clause.

Embedded questions: wela / welo

The interrogative complementizer pair wela/welo embeds a yes/no question as the object of a verb. Where mena says "here comes a statement," wela says "here comes an uncertainty." The closer welo marks where the question ends, just as meno closes declarative embeddings.

mia wela shia to wepu welo phaelo.
1SG INT.COMP 3SG PST go INT.COMP.CLOSE feel.
(I wonder whether they left.)

shia wela mia so kamo welo ma sano.
3SG INT.COMP 1SG FUT arrive INT.COMP.CLOSE NEG know.
(They do not know whether I will arrive.)

mia wela sorae sulae nai welo nila.
1SG INT.COMP sun warm be INT.COMP.CLOSE see.
(I see whether the sun is warm.)

Embedded content questions

When the embedded question involves an interrogative pronoun (sua, hina, kua, etc.), the pronoun itself signals that the clause is a question. No wela/welo is needed:

mia sua to wepu sano.
1SG who PST go know.
(I know who left.)

mia kua ne sulae nai ma sano.
1SG where NAME sulae be NEG know.
(I do not know where sulae is.)

shia thela peloru thuroa shelomui.
3SG how flower grow understand.
(They understand how the flowers grow.)

The interrogative pronoun occupies the position of the unknown element within the embedded clause. The main sentence remains a statement; only the embedded clause carries the question.