tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Aug 10 00:42:27 1995

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Re: }} {-wI'} on sentences

I will heretofore confine my arguments to canon phrases and I will refrain
from creating theoretical examples.

The noun-noun construction is labeled by Marc Okrand simply as
"possessive."  I am willing to entertain an expansion of the term
"possessive" to include more than mere ownership.  The article by d'Armond
Speers in HolQeD 3:3 concludes that "genitive" is an appropriate
interpretation of noun-noun, where "genitive" is rather loosely defined as
involving a close connection with the head noun.

With the exception of two examples, I agree with that conclusion.  Both
exceptions, {Hergh QaywI'} and {woj choHwI'}, are of the form
noun-verb-wI'.  Treating the first as a simple noun-noun constructions, we
get "medicine transferrer", a kind of "transferrer", with "medicine" having
some connection with "transferrer".  The obvious connection is that
medicine is what the transferrer transfers.  Similarly, the second example
is a kind of "changer", with radiation being what the changer changes.  It
appears that in a construction of this sort, the first noun is the object
of the verb which has had {-wI'} placed on it.  In this case, I think it
makes sense to talk about a "thing which changes_radiation" rather than a
"radiation's thing_which_changes."

If we use {-bogh} to say the same thing, we can use something generic as
the head noun: {woj choHbogh Doch}.  Or we can be somewhat more descriptive
with the redundant {woj choHbogh choHwI'}.  If we permit {-wI'} to act on a
verb which has an object, we can say {woj choHwI'}, which is what we say
anyway.

The end result is the same whether one considers it a noun-noun phrase or a
simple sentence with {-wI'}.  There is no impact on how well it will be
understood.  The tradeoff is between further expanding the definition of
"possessive" and permitting {-wI'} to act on a verb with an object.

 -- ghunchu'wI'

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