tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Apr 14 18:13:41 1998
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Re: Top Gun reply to KLBC
- From: Qov <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Top Gun reply to KLBC
- Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 18:11:01 -0700
At 11:00 98-04-14 -0700, tIm wrote:
}Qov responds;
}
} You do not understand the SAO construction. The word {'e'} is a } pronoun
} that represents the immediately preceding sentence when that sentence acts as
} the object of the next verb. SENTENCE as OBJECT. This is its ONLY use.
} } It does not ever mean "them."
}
}I understand it a little. When I looked up the superlative construction in
} the TKD all the law'/puS examples were sentences. So I thought that the
} law'/puS construction was a sentence. Now given that, 'e' in the second
} sentence dose not mean "them" it means "that". So in English the two
} sentences are like;
}
}"These guys are the best. Iceman is better than that."
Reasonable argument, but look at the order of the words in the law'/puS.
{jIH qej law' Hoch qej puS}
What sort of Klingon sentence is *{jIH qej law'}? None. No Klingon sentence
starts with a subject, then has two verbs, both without prefixes. The
entire construction is construed as a sentence, but what is the subject of
the sentence? What is the object? What is the verb? It is just too weird
to speak of this way. That's why we can't/don't know how to write "Because
I am bigger than a targh ..." or "the man who is older than my brother ..."
There being no clear subject and object in the construction, there is no
clear object position is which to place {'e'}.
} I meant the first sentence to be an object. Now the law'/puS may be special
} but there is nothing that says you can't use pronouns with it.
Right. Pronouns are allowed.
} You say that
} po' is intransitive and takes no object but the law'/puS makes the verb act
} like a comparative. Two different things are being compared; X is better than
} Y. X is the subject and Y is an object(a prepositional object).
I don't actually know the term "prepositional object" if it means anything
other than the object of a preposition. In English, the translation has a
subject, but no preposition. "Than" is a conjunction. In Klingon there is
no reposition in that sentence either, and the relationship between the two
things being compared is nothing like a subject-object relationship, that I
can see. I don't see that the verb acting in comparative structure means
that it takes an object. It doesn't in English.
} So maybe 'e'
} can't be used as a prepositional object but that's why I was asking for the
} BG's help. Or maybe the law'/puS construction is two sentences in Klingon and
} I know 'e' can't refer to more than one sentence.
I think I see more of your logic now, but I still don't accept {'e'} there
instead of {chaH}.
}Oh well, now that I have explained myself; I'm off to write my five sentences.
It wasn't an assigned punishment or anything. :)
Qov [email protected]
Beginners' Grammarian