tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jun 17 19:13:39 1996

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RE: thursday:today

Kenneth Traft writes:
>...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?

The topic suffix is only *required* on a subject following a pronoun used
as the verb "to be", but it can be used on any (single) noun in a phrase
in order to mark that noun as the topic of the sentence.

I don't understand Lawrence's usage, though.  It seems to me that the real
topic of the sentence ought to be the *story*, not the storyteller.  I can
translate it fine: "As for him, why did he tell it to us?"  It very neatly
switches the topic away from the story, but I don't see a reason to switch
topics.

-- ghunchu'wI'               batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj

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