by Max Wheeler
They cook some rather good dishes there.
A diminutive form Déu n’hi doret! is also heard:
Déu n’hi doret com canatava aquella! That woman really could sing!
Xe! is stereotypically Valencian, being in that dialect the equivalent of home! (see above) in communicating a wide range of responses or emphases: surprise, enthusiasm, pleasure, anger, etc.
Xe! Quina alegria! How very pleased I am!
Ves (per on)! (from veure ‘see’) expresses true or feigned surprise:
Vaig regirar tots els calaixos buscant la clau i, ves per on, la tenia a la butxaca.
I turned the drawers inside out looking for the key and, would you believe it, it was in my pocket.
Rai (Central; in Val. and Bal. res takes the place of rai) is used to deny or play down the importance of something just said. For example:
–Ha perdut la feina. –La feina rai, mentre tingui salut.
‘She has lost her job.’ ‘The job doesn’t matter, as long as her health is good.’
–Enguany no guanyarem la Copa d’Europa. –La Copa d’Europa rai, hem de concentrar-nos en la lliga.
‘We shan’t win the European Cup this year.’ ‘Never mind the European Cup; we need to concentrate on the league.’
The second-person subject pronoun tu! often occurs as an interjection in colloquial expressions of admiration or surprise:
Va ser genial, tu!
It was really brilliant!
Han vingut molts més dels que ens esperàvem: una invasió, tu!
Many more have turned up than we expected: we’ve been over-run!
Mare meva! and Mare de Déu! (the latter slightly blasphemous) can be independent interjections or can support other exclamatory utterances:
I tant, Mare de Déu!, i tant!
Not half, Good Heavens! Not half!/You can say that again!
Som-hi? ‘ready?’ is used to ask, generally in an encouraging way, if someone is ready to take action; the positive response is (Sí) som-hi! ‘OK’/‘Ready when you are’/‘Let’s go’/‘Let’s do it then’. Som-hi! alone expresses willingness to act or encouragement to others to act.
24.2 IDEOPHONES
Ideophones constitute a differentiated class of words which typically express either distinctive sounds (basically onomatopoeic) or visually distinctive types of action. Ideophones often exhibit peculiar phonological features, such as segments not occurring in any other word formation. Reduplication and vowel alternation are characteristics of such items. Catalan has a particularly rich repertoire of ideophones, as illustrated in the following sample:
(i) Basically onomatopoeic ideophones:
bum-bum represents boom or a booming sound.
catric-catrac represents clatter or rattle (of machinery).
cloc-cloc represents clucking (of hen) or clucking sound.
fru-fru represents rustle (of fabrics) or similar rustling sound.
nyic-nyic represents an irritatingly persistent (and high-pitched) sound.
nyigo-nyigo represents the sound of an out-of-tune or badly played stringed instrument.
nyac/nyaca represents the impact of two things colliding.
ning-nang represents the sound of a (large) bell.
ning-ning represents the sound of a (small) bell.
tiro-liro represents squeak of a wind instrument.
xerric-xerrac represents a harshly grating sound.
xiu-xiu represents indistinct whispering or muttering sounds.
xup-xup represents a gentle bubbling sound.
All of the above can function as nouns, while many can be adverbial, for example:
el xiu-xiu del ventijol
the whispering of the breeze
Tot el sant dia estan xiu-xiu i segur que maquinen alguna cosa.
All day long they talk secretively among themselves and they’re obviously plotting something.
(ii) Noun ideophones:
un(a) baliga-balaga an irresponsible person
fer cofis-i-mofis get up to no good/sly tricks (two or more people)
tenir cori-mori have heartburn/pain in the chest
un farrigo-farraga a bad mix-up
fer la gara-gara flatter/butter up
un pengim-penjam (also adverbial: caminar pengim-penjam an untidily dressed person shamble awkwardly)
un poti-poti confusion/confused situation/untidy mess
el rau-rau nagging conscience (from onomatopoeia of rubbing or grating)
Sentia un rau-rau al cor. He felt a nagging regret in his heart.
un tol·le-tol·le (collective expression of protest or indignation)
fer la viu-viu get by as best one can
(iii) Adverbial ideophones:
banzim-banzam tottering, moving unsteadily from side to side
(pagar) bitllo-bitllo (pay) in cash, on the nail
leri-leri very near (to)
El cor encara li bat però està leri-leri de morir. His heart is still beating but he is very close to death.
de nyigui-nyogui badly or carelessly constructed
nyic-i-nyac in constant and niggling disagreement
tau-tau moderately well
La cosa ha anat tau-tau. It’s gone OK.
xano-xano/xino-xano at a deliberately steady or slow (walking) pace
25 SIMPLE SENTENCES AND GRAMMATICAL RELATIONS
25.1 SIMPLE SENTENCES
Typical simple sentences consist of a verb and one or more arguments, that is, phrases that must be present for the sentence to be grammatical. Intransitive verbs are constructed with just one argument: the subject noun phrase, as in Ha arribat el tren? ‘Has the train arrived?’ A few intransitive verbs (weather verbs) normally have not even a subject, e.g. Nevava ‘It snowed’. Transitive verbs (using this term in a broad sense) are those that are constructed with more than one argument, for example, with a subject and a direct object noun phrase, as in El tren portava les bigues ‘The train brought the girders’; with a subject and an indirect object phrase, as in Li agraden els pastissos ‘He likes cakes’ (lit. ‘Cakes please to him’) with a subject noun phrase and a locative phrase, as in Nosaltres vam anar a Grècia ‘We went to Greece’; with a subject, a direct, and an indirect object, as in L’Enric va oferir una rosa a la Rosa ‘Enric offered Rosa a rose’; with a subject, a direct object, and a locative phrase, as in Fuster va posar les mans a la taula ‘Fuster put his hands on the table’. Less often, verbs take other types of arguments, for example, a prepositional phrase with a specified preposition, as in fiar-se de ‘trust’ (lit. ‘trust oneself of’): El nostre fill no es fia dels seus amics ‘Our son does not trust his friends’; or a verb may take as complement a manner adverbial, as with portar-se ‘behave’: Es portaven molt malament ‘They behaved very badly’; or a nominal complement, as in Els catalans el van elegir president ‘The Catalans elected him president’ (where el is the direct object and president is the nominal complement). Copular verbs (Chapter 30) fall outside the major transitive/ intransitive dichotomy.
In addition to a verb and its arguments (which either must be present or may only be absent in narrowly specified circumstances), sentences may contain adverbial or prepositional phrase adjuncts, specifying place, time, manner, etc., as in:
Ahir no vaig poder llegir gaire bé el diari a casa d’en Miquel.
Yesterday I couldn’t read the paper very well at Miquel’s house.
25.2 SUBJECTS
25.2.1 PERSONAL AND IMPERSONAL SUBJECTS
The subject pronouns (11.1) are not required to be present, since finite verbs largely indicate what the subject is by means of inflections (see 11.5.1). Even where a verb form would in itself be ambiguous (as Sentia Ί/he/she/you (sg. polite) heard’), subject pronouns are used only to avoid real ambiguity. The subject pronouns are used when there is an explicit or implied contrast:
Jo he demanat peix, tu has demanat arròs, i ells han demanat bistecs.
I asked for fish, you asked for paella, and they asked for steaks.
Among intransitive verbs there are some whose subjects share some features with the objects of transitive verbs. In particular, indefinite or quantified noun phrases can be pronominalized with en (12.6v). These intransitive verbs are called ‘unaccusative’; the subjects of other intransitive verbs, or of transitive verbs, cannot be represented by en.
N’arribaven tres, de vaques. Three cows arrived.
Observe that En menjaven tres, de vaques cannot mean ‘Three cows were eating’ (but only ‘Cows, they were eating three of them’). It is only with such unaccusative constructions that, in the perfect tense with haver, the participle may agree in number and gender with the clitic pronoun en representing the subject (21.1.2):
Van arribar tres vaques, i ara n’han arribades moltes més.
Three cows arrived, and now many more have arrived.
An unspecified or generic (impersonal) subject is usually expressed with the reflexive pronoun es and a third-person verb. See Chapter 29 for detailed discussion of impersonal es and related constructions.
Es creu que no en vindran gaires.
It is thought not many will come.
No es podia trobar una biblioteca adequada.
You/One couldn’t find an adequate library.
In literary varieties the impersonal subject pronoun hom is also used:
Ací hom treballa molt. Here one works hard.
In impersonal constructions with es, when the verb is transitive and the object is plural, the verb agrees in number with the object. Historically the semantic object became the grammatical subject (whence number agreement) and the reflexive pronoun es bore the role of the grammatical direct object. However, it is debatable whether such an analysis is realistic for the contemporary language.
Α Catalunya, s’hi mengen bones patates.
In Catalonia people eat good potatoes./Good potatoes can be eaten, (orig. Good potatoes eat themselves.)
No es troben raons suficients.
You/One can’t find adequate reasons.
25.2.2 SUBJECTLESS IMPERSONAL VERBS
The verbs haver and ser present particular uses in their third-person singular forms. Such constructions have no grammatical subject or, in logic, a subject which is so indefinite as to be indeterminate.
Translating relevant tenses of ‘there is’, haver always takes the adverbial clitic hi, so that in this context the infinitive is considered to be haver-hi (see 30.1). The words accompanying hi ha, etc., stand formally as direct object of the verb:
Hi ha tres possibilitats.
There are three possibilities.
No hi podia haver hagut cap altra manera d’aconseguir-ho.
There could not have been any other way of achieving it.
In standard Catalan this impersonal construction with haver-hi admits only the singular form (Hi ha tres possibilitats). In most dialects, however, including those of the major cities, the tendency to make the verb agree with a plural complement is quite deeply rooted, even in educated speech (a phenomenon not dissimilar from English ‘there’s’ + plural noun, and comparably tolerable):
Hi havien molts errors, (standard Hi havia …)
There were a lot of mistakes.
Poden haver-hi circumstàncies atenuants, (standard Pot haver-hi …)
There may be attenuating circumstances.
Haver appears without hi in the archaic temporal expression temps ha ‘some time ago’, although temporal expressions meaning ‘ago’ (see 33.2.2) are usually made with subjectless fer standing before the elapsed time referred to: fa molt de temps/tres mesos ‘a long time/three months ago’.
The principal cases for observing the impersonal use of ser are expressions like:
És aviat/tard. It’s early/late.
Ja era de nit. It was already night(time).
Impersonal constructions involving ser with a noun, adjective, or infinitive complement, or ser followed by a clause, conform to a similar logic by which the notional subject can be understood to be an indeterminate ‘it’.
És curiós; fa un moment ho deia jo.
It’s odd; I was saying it just a moment ago.
Subjectless impersonal expressions of weather conditions
While there are some verbs denoting specific weather conditions or phenomena (and their metaphorical application) – ploure ‘rain’ (Plou molt al Pirineu ‘It rains a lot in the Pyrenees’), nevar ‘snow’, tronar ‘thunder’ fer ‘do’, ‘make’ is used in general descriptions of the weather: Fa bo ‘It’s nice weather’, Fa sol ‘It’s sunny’, Fa núvol, ‘It’s cloudy’, Fa un dia lleig/esplèndid ‘It’s an awful/splendid day’. (The subject of these expressions is understood to be ‘the weather’, and thus agreement is not generally found with a plural complement: Fa dies bons ‘It’s been nice these last few days’. Agreement does occur, though, when verbs of weather are used figuratively:
Plovien elogis de totes bandes. Praises rained down from all directions.
Fer is also used pronominally to express changes in the weather or in atmospheric conditions: S’ha fet fosc ‘It’s gone/turned dark’, S’ha fet clar ‘It has become daylight’. Cloudy conditions are also expressed by ennuvolar-se ‘become cloudy’, ‘cloud over’ or estar núvol ‘be cloudy’.
Other subjectless impersonal expressions: caldre, diu
The impersonal verb caldre ‘be necessary’ exists only (all tenses) in the third person. It can be followed by a noun, by an infinitive, or by a clause (with the verb always in the subjunctive).
Cal una eina per descargolar. What’s needed is a tool for unscrewing.
Calia temps i molta paciència. Time and a lot of patience were necessary.
No cal patir. There’s no need to be upset.
Ens ha calgut enllestir-ho avui. We have had to finish it today.
Cal que ens ho diguis aviat. You must tell us soon.
With a plural noun complement either the singular or the plural form of caldre is equally acceptable in sentences like:
Calia/Calien molts diners. A lot of money was necessary.
Cal/Calen més cadires. More chairs are needed.
(This contrasts with uncertainty over the acceptability of plural agreement with haver-hi, discussed above.) The impersonal verbal phrase fer falta is synonymous with caldre.
Reporting of fact or opinion can be prefaced by Diu que ‘It is said that…/ The saying goes …’, favoured in colloquial usage over Diuen que or Es diu que:
Diu que demà hi haurà vaga.
The word is that there’ll be a strike tomorrow.
25.3 DIRECT OBJECTS
Personal pronouns have unstressed (clitic) direct object forms distinct from subject forms (Chapter 12). Other noun phrases generally take no special form as direct objects, but the preposition a is used before direct object noun phrases in certain limited contexts. See 14.1.1.1 for details. To the cases mentioned there we may add that dislocated (Chapter 36) direct object phrases which denote people require the preposition a:
A Kristeva i als seus seguidors, els preocupaven més les implicacions semiòtiques.
Kristeva and her followers were more concerned with the semiotic implications.
–Satisfà que hi hagi un comitè de direcció? –A molts escriptors, no.
‘Is it enough that there should be a management committee?’ For many writers, it isn’t.’ (lit. Does it satisfy …? (To) many writers, no.)
Ja sé com l’hai d’amoixar, a Na Rosó. (J. Ruyra)
Now I know how to flatter her, (that is,) Rosó.
In Balearic this usage extends to inanimate direct objects which are left-dislocated:
A ses tovalloles, posa-les dins es calaix. Put the napkins in the drawer.
A personal pronoun direct object must always be represented by a clitic pronoun, even if a stressed personal pronoun is also present:
El veurem a ell avui, i et veurem a tu demà.
We shall see him today, and we shall see you tomorrow.
(Not *Veurem a ell…)
They haven’t informed us about the scholarships we applied for.
(No ens han informat de les beques … is normal, though less emphatic; *No han informat a nosaltres … is ungrammatical.)
In Catalan, much more usually than in English, a generic or impersonal direct object (‘people’, ‘you’, ‘one’) may be totally absent, as in the second example in this section, Satisfà que hi hagi… ?
Aquella proposta no convenç.
That suggestion is unconvincing. (lit. does not persuade)
El soroll no deixa dormir.
The noise doesn’t let you/people sleep.
La situació a Bòsnia preocupa molt.
The Bosnian situation is very worrying.
25.4 INDIRECT OBJECTS
Except in the third person, the indirect object unstressed (clitic) personal pronouns are the same as the direct object ones (12.3.2.3). The third-person indirect object clitics are li (sg.) and els/los (pl, both genders). Stressed indirect object pronouns, and other types of indirect object noun phrases, are marked with the preposition a.
El govern no concedeix prou importància als petits empresaris.
The government does not grant enough importance to small businessmen.
El govern no els concedeix prou importància.
The government does not grant them enough importance.
As with direct objects, a personal pronoun indirect object must always be represented by a clitic pronoun, even if a stressed personal pronoun is also present:
No li han ensenyat a vostè les cartes que Foix em va escriure?
