tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Apr 28 06:51:27 1995

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing



[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

Re: Prepositions



*whimper* over 200 mail messages.  What a mess.  I wasn't able to read my
mail for a while since my office was being moved around.  Oh well.  Just
one comment on this letter, even though I may be woefully out of date.

>Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 18:59:33 -0400
>Originator: [email protected]
>From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>

>According to [email protected]:

>> ghaH par Hoch vay'  Everyone is against him.

>{Hoch} does not need {vay'}. Your sentence means "Everybody's
>anybody dislikes him". Meanwhile, "is against him" can mean a
>lot of different things. He could be serving a game of "cut
>throat" on a racketball court where everyone (the other two
>players, who like him a lot) is against him. He could be
>standing in the middle of a crowded elevator (with everyone
>mashed up against him). He could be speaking an opinion in a
>room full of people who like him and respect him, but
>completely disagree with this opinion. Or, he could be in a
>battle where everyone is out to kill him, in which case {par}
>seems like a mild verb. Meanwhile, in your original sentence,
>you made an error I often make myself:

>ghaH lupar Hoch.

>Don't forget that prefix.

Um, I think he *should* forget that prefix.  Yes, definitely "Hoch" and not
"Hoch vay'", but remember that Hoch is a collective plural, and as such is
treated grammatically as a Singular (3.3.2).


>charghwI'

~mark


Back to archive top level