tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jul 31 12:12:53 2001
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Re: Questions
jatlh charghwI':
>majatlh nuvpu'. "We, the people, speak."
>
>The prefix tells you the subject is first person plural. The explicit
>noun {nuvpu'} tells you what "we" are: people.
jatlh HomDoq:
>the one objection I have about this is that in light of
>TKD 5.6 I would interpret the {nuvpu'} as an address,
>that is, I read {majatlh nuvpu'} as "People, we are speaking"
>which not necessarily means that "we" and "people" refers
>to the same entity (assuming context makes it clear this
>is not a quote, meaning "we said <<nuvpu'>>")
I would consider this to be an instance of ambiguity. This can be true of any
subject, not just a first-person subject. For example, {jatlh nuvpu'} could
mean any of the following:
- The people are speaking.
- People, he/she/they is/are speaking.
- He/she/they said, {nuvpu'.}
This is an accepted element of the language. I don't think {majatlh nuvpu'}
is any different from {jatlh nuvpu'}.
DujHoD
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