tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jun 23 15:53:55 1997

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RE: KLBC: "... or is he a snugiraffe"



[email protected] on behalf of Eskil Heyn Olsen wrote:

> On Sat, 21 Jun 1997, David Trimboli wrote:
> 
> > > I broke it down to "In denmark a klingon spy lives" used as object to 
> > > "ghaH".
> > You cannot do this.  {ghaH} is a pronoun, not a verb with an object.  What
> > you 
> 
> Yes it's a pronoun, but TKD 6.3 says I can use them as verbs. The trouble 
> was then putting together the stating of a "to be" thing with a sentence 
> containing a verb such as "He is a big klingon" as {tlhIngan tIn 'e' 
> ghaH} or even as {tlhIngan tIn ghaH} ?

{ghaH} is simply not a sentence by itself, and therefore cannot also include 
an object like {'e'}.

The second sentence works, but is there some reason you can't just say {tIn 
tlhIngan} "The Klingon is big"?  It means the same thing, is more concise, and 
is verb-based, not noun-based.

> > *Denmark*Daq yIntaHbogh tlhIngan ghoqwI' ghaH'a'?
> > Is he a Klingon spy who lives in Denmark?
> 
> No thanks, I tried not to phrase the first sentence as a question, but as 
> a fact : "He is a klingon spy living in denmark". And the next as an 
> afterthougt : "... or is he an emissary ?". (allthough the sentence might 
> make more sense if it was "He is an klingon emissary living in denmark... 
> or is he a spy ?", but it's not my sentence and they are structurally 
> alike).

Well, if the question is really an afterthought, there's still no need to give 
it a sentence conjunction.

*Denmark*Daq yIntaH tlhIngan Duy.  ghoqwI' ghaH'a'?
The Klingon emissary is living in Denmark.  Is he a spy?

-- 
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97478.3


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