Dia daoibh arís, a Dhaoine!

I’ve been studying up about Irish complement clauses.
In An Caighdeán Oifigiúil, (among a list of other scenarios) it states that the copular particle “gur” (as opposed to “gurb”) is used before personal pronouns beginning with a vowel (é/eisean, í/ise, iad/iadsan) if the pronoun is the subject or object of the verbal noun.

I completely understand how a pronoun could be the object of a verbal noun in those circumstances, but I can’t think of a way that it could be the subject.

In fact, even the Caighdeán gave two examples only featuring the pronoun as an object.
I’ll share those two examples below:

Síleann sí gur é a bhailiú is fearr.
Dar leis gur iad a fhoilsiú is fearr.

In both of the above examples, the pronoun is an object.
I’ve racked my brain on this one; can anybody think of an example of a pronoun as a subject of a verbal noun in a complement clause with “gur”?

Thank you for any help!

síleann sé guɼ é ' bheith ann is feárr é?

I've never seen a single sentence of this type.

síleann sí go mbeadh sé níós feárr é ' bhailiú

Those are good examples I think!
Your second example made me wonder: Maybe the first example in the Caighdeán was actually in fact showing an example of a subject (but it depends on how it’s interpreted).

I was reading it as “She thinks it is best to collect it.”

When maybe it was really intended to be read as “She thinks it is best for him to collect.”

What do you think?

Thank you for your input and help!

I don't really know where they get these sentences from.

Sometimes something can be grammatically correct, but not the most idiomatic form.

Is dó' liom gurb é rud is feárr ná é ' bhailiú.

This seems to me to be better. What does Labhrás think?

If é were the subject, then wouldn't it need an object: é á bhailiú? For him to gather it up?

Maybe you can look for analogous sentences in the Irish corpus at https://corpas.focloir.ie/crystal/#wordsketch ?

'She thinks it is best to collect it' would be síleann sí gur fearr é ' bhailiú.
'She thinks it is best for him to collect' would be síleann sí gur fearr dò bailiú

Nualeargais says:



The above case being:



The reason that gur is used in your examples is that the pronoun is part of an infinitive construction (i.e. é a bhailiú, iad a fhoilsiú). However, both of these examples seam rather unnatural. I suppose that word order can always be changed (like this) with use of the copula, but I see no need for further re-emphesis (i.e. emphasis on the infinitive constructions). Could you provide sources?

_________________
I'm an intermediate speaker of the Corca Dhuibhne dialect of Irish and also have knowledge on the old spelling
Soir gaċ síar, fé ḋeireaḋ thíar

And I put an extra é at the end of this. Maybe there are dialectal differences. Do they omit the é in some parts of Ireland?

Does your example mean 'He thinks that his being there is best'?

Diarmuid Ó Sé wrote in An Teanga Bheo: Corca Dhuibhne (I would quote Gaeilge Chorca Dhuibhne, but I can't find the section talking about this point there):



But your example does not have the two pronouns immediately following each other, like in the examples above. Gaeilge Chorca Dhuibhne probably talks about both at some place.

Also, not to nit-pick, but is there a specific reason that you wrote the Gothic r in guɼ?

_________________
I'm an intermediate speaker of the Corca Dhuibhne dialect of Irish and also have knowledge on the old spelling
Soir gaċ síar, fé ḋeireaḋ thíar

GGBC a scríobh:


The example here for subject pronouns in verbal noun phrases is:
- gur é a theacht is ceart
The example for an object pronoun is almost the same as yours :
- gur é a bhailiú a chreideann sí is fearr

In case you want the latter to be a subject pronoun (in a transitive phrase) it would be:
- gur é á bhailiú a chreideann sí is fearr (a fada makes the difference)


Why gur? Because "é a theacht" is bracketed:
- gur [é a theacht] is ceart
vs.
- gurb é is ceart