tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Oct 21 13:13:57 1994
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: Pronouns and suffixes
>From: [email protected] (Matt Gomes)
>Date: Fri, 21 Oct 1994 05:55:12 +0800
>qajatlhneS:
> I was talking to someone on the MUSH the other day, and they said:
>SoHvaD chu' nuq? (I'm pretty sure this was it)
> Well... #1) SoH is not capitalized in the pronoun section (should be SoH)...
>and #2) I didn't know you could add noun suffixes to pronouns...
> The example given was on page 180 of TKD:
>chaHvaD Soj qem yaS (The officer brings them food)
> AH! But I answer my own question... it explicitly says on P. 180 (6.8) that
>"the Type 5 noun suffix -vaD (for, intended for). The suffix may be attached
>to either a noun or a pronoun."
> So, this means all you have to do is put -vaD on the indirect object and put
>at the very front? Seems straight forward...
> Are there any other suffixes that you can add to pronouns? Or is this the on
>ly
>one?
There was some discussion about this once; we had happily been throwing
noun-suffixes on pronouns until someone pointed out that maybe they don't
behave like nouns, since they're chuvmey. Happily, we have examples as you
put above for -vaD, and also Okrand's "SoHDaq qeylIS qa' yInjaj" in one of
the tapes (presumable PK).
We already know that pronouns can take *verb* suffixes (see p. 68). Though
I suppose we have no direct evidence for noun suffixes apart from -vaD and
-Daq, I would certainly think that all sensible noun suffixes are legal for
pronouns. By sensible I mean all type 5's (jIHmo', SoH'e'), but probably
not *ghaH'a' or *jIHmey. *Maybe* things like ?jIHlIj or ?chaHna' in some
seriously avant-garde poetry, but all bets are off in things like that
anyway.
~mark