Exercise 7 in unit 16
Translate:
Will you eat the sweets? — If I may.
Solution
lapà ávy ziì mlÌvy. ^ là xt {fyÌ} là ul {qyà } kmà el.
là xt à vy mlyvý à ul kmà el.
do-fact-ask-fact1 eat-fact-acc2 PIn−3-dat-dat3a sweet-acc-acc3. — want-fact1 {PIIn−1-acc-acc2} do-fact-mot2 {PIIn−2-acc-fact3} allow-fact-caus3.
The conditional sentence underlying the answer is ‘I’ll eat the sweets if I may’:là xt à vy mlyvý à ul kmà el.
want-fact1 eat-fact-acc2 sweet-acc-acc3 PIIn-fact-mot2 allow-fact-caus3.
From there, we replace the accusative object (‘eat the sweets’) with a pronoun equating it to the question’s accusative object; then we need a pseudo-desorption to refer to the action of eating. Both pronouns can be omitted.