tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jun 02 06:32:34 1994
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-moH and transitivity
- From: "Mark Nudelman" <[email protected]>
- Subject: -moH and transitivity
- Date: 2 Jun 1994 15:24:53 U
Reply to: -moH and transitivity
I was thinking about -moH and I realized I understand it less than I
thought I did. Two example from TKD are:
nuqDaq waqwIj vIlamHa'choHmoH
Du'IHchoHmoH mIvvam
In both cases, an intransitive verb (lamHa'choH, become clean;
'IHchoH, become beautiful) is changed to a transitive verb
(lamHa'choHmoH, cause SOMETHING to become clean; 'IHchoHmoH,
cause SOMETHING to become beautiful). In fact, in all the canonical
examples of -moH that I can find, it is used with an intransitive
verb. Is it legal to use -moH on a transitive verb?
If it is, the resulting verb has *two* objects. For example, HoHmoH
would be to cause SOMEONE to kill SOMEONE ELSE. "HoD qaHoHmoH"
would seem to mean "I cause you to kill the captain." But qa-
implies the object is "you", what is that HoD doing there? And how
could you say "I cause the officer to kill the captain"?
"HoD yaS vIHoHmoH" must be wrong; there is no evidence for two objects
strung together like this. Besides, it can be read "I caused him to
kill the captain's officer."
--nachHegh
[email protected]