tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Jun 15 22:23:16 1996

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RE: thursday:today




I Wrote:
> I note a change in tense in the last sentence.  He used third person in the
> first two sentences and then switched to second person. 

Dr. Schoen answered:

>I have to disagree.  Klingon doesn't have tense ...

Very slopy of me.  I didn't mean tense, but person class.  I have no questions 
concerning his "tense".  I haven't talked grammar for so long, I promise to 
get better!

Dr. Schoen elaborates:
>your suggestion of <<qatlh maHvaD ja'>> might reasonably be read 
>with more consistency as "why does the story tell/report to us?" rather than 
>"why does he tell/report it to us?"
>or if you want the second reading you can nicely illustrate the Type 5 noun 
>suffix for topics
><<qatlh maHvaD ja' ghaH'e'>>

I see now that I should have made the sentence clearer by using the pronoun 
"ghaH" in the subject position.  Especially since "lutDaj" was the subject of 
the previous two sentences.  I understand, "qatlh maHvaD ja' ghaH" -- Why did 
he tell it to us?  but I am confused with the use of the topic suffix on 
"ghaH".  I though that the topic suffix was used only on a subject following a 
verb pronoun?

Should I be using "<< >>" to enclosing Klingon words and sentences in an 
English paragraph?  I want to get the rules straight, thanks.  I've learned 
much, but I need to learn more!!!
 


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