tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Mar 22 16:02:38 1995
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Re: 'Iv as pronoun?
>Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 17:27:46 -0500
>Originator: [email protected]
>From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
>Seeing the title on a recent post: {qeylIS ghaH 'Iv?}, I've come
>to wonder:
I actually thought that since 'Iv is being used nominally it should have
been "'Iv'e'", properly (cf. Okrand's "Sojvetlh 'oH nuq'e'"---admittedly, a
weird sentence; I'd have expected nuq 'oH Sojvetlh'e').
>If 'Iv is treated like a noun in its grammatical placement in a
>sentence, replacing the noun being asked about, might we extend
>this to say that it would be treated like a pronoun? By that, I
>mean, can we use it for the verb "to be"?
>In other words, I think perhaps the question should have been:
>qeylIS 'Iv?
Could, not should. Recall "SoH 'Iv" (which could have either pronoun as a
verb, I suppose). I'm inclined to believe that 'Iv can be used as a
verb... but not that it has to be.
>Otherwise, the title should have included the suffix {-'e'},
>and I don't really like {qeylIS ghaH 'Iv'e'?}. For one thing, I
>don't recall that we have license to use a noun suffix on 'Iv.
>Instead, it would have to be {'Iv ghaH qeylIS'e'?}.
>But if we can't use noun suffixes on 'Iv, how do we ask, "For
>whom does the bell toll?" And if we CAN put noun suffixes on
>'Iv for the same reasons we can put some of them on pronouns,
>then can we also use VERB suffixes, as we do on pronouns?
Well, we do have license to use noun suffixes on pronouns (SoHvaD vay'
vIje' vIneH, in CK). I tend to class 'Iv as a pronoun, myself. I would
accept, yes, "'IvvaD jachtaH ghum?" I'd probably also allow naDev 'IvtaH,
though "naDev SaH 'Iv" sounds a little more natural.
>nuq DaQub?
Which of us are you asking? :)
~mark