tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Mar 03 00:36:58 1997

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RE: KLBC: "-lu'"

jatlh voqHa'wI':

> > I'd like to know:  where should you put the main noun in a passive 
sentence
> > with "-lu'"?
> [...]
> 
> The "main verb" in this situation is the object (as the subject is
> indefinite or unknown), and thus to be correct it should appear before
> the verb.

This is the sort of question I should be answering first!  :)  Especially 
since you're getting a little confused.  The "main noun" is what you meant to 
say.

> > But I've noticed in jatmey and other
> > sources (but no canonical ones) that it is sometimes put at the beginning
> > of the sentence.
> 
> And in TKD:  naDev puqpu' tu'tu'  (someone finds children here)
> Or, "There are children here"

Bad example.  {tu'lu'} does do this, but it seems to be a formation which is 
rather standardized.  Grammatically, it would have to be {naDev puqpu' 
lutu'lu'}.  I can imagine that over the course of the evolution of the Klingon 
language, this {tu'lu'} without a prefix came to be always used.

> > It is called the subject (in English) because you need
> > to have a subject and a verb to make a whole sentence.  Sometimes the
> > subject is implied, such as imperative sentences, and that would exception
> > would have to work more with Klingon.  But how does Klingon work with the
> > passive voice? 
> 
> In English the subject is someone/something and it is implied the same
> way "you" is in the imperative, such as the first translation above.

I don't think this sort of "implication" is at all related.  If you were 
giving a command, you *could* say

yISop SoH!
Eat!

I know of no rule which prevents this.  However, there is no way to make 
explicit the subject of a verb with {-lu'}; by its very nature the subject is 
indefinite.

-- 
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97169.9

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