tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Feb 12 09:21:39 1999
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Re: Emphasis
On Thu, 11 Feb 1999 21:03:35 -0800 (PST) David Trimboli
<[email protected]> wrote:
> You want to call that emphasis? Fine. But everyone had better make sure
> they don't use one sort of emphasis when they mean another. If I want to
> spell out my pronouns for some reason, that doesn't make them the topic of
> the sentence. If I want to talk about only one of something, that something
> isn't necessarily the topic of the sentence, either. Explicit pronouns and
> {neH} do not do the same thing as {-'e'}, which is EXACTLY what it sound
> like people are saying when they talk about emphasis.
>
> SuStel
> Stardate 99116.2
In TKD, Okrand explicitly says that using the pronoun as a noun
EITHER indicates EMPHASIS or is used for CLARITY. There are
times when you'd use it for clarity:
vIlegh.
bIH vIlegh.
chaH vIlegh.
ghaH vIlegh.
'oH vIlegh.
Without the pronoun, we don't know whether the object can use
language or not and we don't know whether the object is singular
or plural. The pronoun adds clarity and does not indicate
emphasis.
vIlegh jIH.
Here, the pronoun adds no clarity. We already knew the subject
was first person singular and can use language. It adds emphasis.
Okrand says it adds emphasis.
Now, he says that {-'e'} is the "topicalizer", though in
subsequent discussions, he has agreed that in his own usage it
more often is used for simple emphasis. Apparently, it has two
grammatical functions. Either it indicates the topic of the
sentence, or it emphasizes the noun to which it is applied.
So, we have two different grammatical tools to indicate
emphasis. One sometimes is used for emphasis and sometimes is
used for clarity. The other sometimes is used for emphasis and
other times is used to indicate the topic of the sentence.
There is no indication so far that there is any difference in
the kind of emphasis implied by using pronouns as nouns when not
doing it for clarity and the kind of emphasis implied when using
{-'e'} not to describe the topic of the sentence.
Meanwhile, Okrand has never said that {neH} implied emphasis.
My hope is that this assists us in progressing toward some kind
of consensus on emphasis.
charghwI' 'utlh