Terminology:
ZAM - Zero-marked term without a tag, i.e. bare sumti. FA prefix is omitted and has to be restored. Fills verb valency.
FAM - term with an explicit FA-tag, i.e. prefixed with FA by the speaker, not the analyzer. Fills verb valency.
BAM - term with any other tag like e.g. BAI. Otherwise known as semantic preposition.
There's been a suggestion that {be ko'a} = {be fi ko'a}.
I think this is plain wrong.
The correct rule is
"Bridi head always has at least one place filled. If not it is implied. ZAMs get places consequentially in their order". CLL states the same using
other words.
What place should take this implied ZAM? Judging by how linkargs work I propose that it is x1.
Thus
{i carvi} => {i zo'e carvi} => {i fa zo'e carvi}
Now what if we say {i carvi fa ko'a}?
There is a rule related to {go'i}. Consider the dialogue:
- la tom cu klama = Tom comes.
- la alis cu go'i = Alice comes.
I think this rule should be applied here as well.
{i carvi fa ko'a} is expanded to {i fa zo'e carvi fa ko'a}.
Since the rule with {go'i} simply replaces sumti with new ones (not necessarily negating replaced ones) we expand it to:
{i fa zo'e carvi i carvi fa ko'a}
I used {i} here to link two resulting sentences, however, it's a special {i} that retains all referents of the initial sentence to be expanded under one discourse (just like {go'i} does).
Now, {i fa zo'e carvi} does pretty much nothing, so semantically we get just {i fa ko'a carvi}.
Now let's look at linkargs.
{lo broda be ko'a cu brodi}. Here clearly, broda1 is filled with zo'e, thus ko'a HAS TO take broda2 place as if we said {i broda ko'a} => {i zo'e broda ko'a} => {i fa zo'e broda fe ko'a}. This happens due to consequential applying of places to ZAMs.
This all might seem obvious, useless and maybe creating no new rules (maybe only applying old rules to new constructs) but only until you want to delve into trickier cases.
{lo broda be fa ko'a cu brodi}. Here we have to apply the rule taken from {go'i}. Again broda1 is filled with zo'e, however, the next part refills it again but now with {ko'a} so we generally result in (disregarding focus and the order of sentences):
{zo'e noi broda cu brodi i ko'a broda} => {lo broda cu brodi i ko'a broda}.
{lo nixli be fa la alis cu melbi} = The girl Alice is pretty.
I know there've been other proposals to specially treat x2 cases but since CLL already has either explicit instructions or hints I think it'd be nice to limit the number of rules and not to multiply entities when there is no need in them. Think of newcomers!
There is certainly some underformalization on what to do when FAMs and ZAMs are used together in one sentence (once again, FAMs are tags filled with FA before we analyze bridi i.e. filled usually by speakers).
I think my thoughts on bridi head and {go'i} could be applied to this interaction as well but probably too much info now so for another time.