tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Apr 02 15:50:26 2004
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Re: 'e' / about
- From: "QeS lagh" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: 'e' / about
- Date: Sat, 03 Apr 2004 09:49:46 +1000
- Bcc:
ghItlhpu' SuStel:
>QeS lagh has already answered this, but I think he missed the point of
>Dar'Qang's question. Dar'Qang is not asking about the legality of putting
>a
>Type 5 suffix on the first noun of a noun-noun construction, he's asking
>what rule allows /tlhIngan Hol'e'/ to hover out there before the object.
HIvqa' veqlargh! jItlhIj.
The segment of my email which Dar'Qang pasted into his/her reply discussed
the legality of the {noun-'e' noun} construct, so I think I misunderstood.
taH:
>In the sentence in question, /tlhIngan Hol'e'/ is not serving as subject or
>object, so it goes before the object noun. Captain Krankor was the first
>to
>call words in this position "header" words.
'ej buvvam pupmo' wItlho'. lI'.
taH:
>It's important to remember that /-'e'/ indicates the noun it's attached to
>is the topic of the sentence, not the topic of something in the sentence.
>/SuvwI''e' maja'chuq/ means "We talk about warriors," not because I'm
>saying
>that the topic of our conversation is warriors, but because if the topic of
>my sentence is warriors, then saying /maja'chuq/ "We confer" in relation to
>that can only mean that our conference was about warriors.
This is something I've grappled with quite a bit. One way you can look at it
is "As for the X". So {'entepray''e' wanI'vetlh tu'pu'} "As for the
Enterprise, it discovered that phenomenon".
But the distinction between topic of conversation and topic of sentence is
often muddy in English, wherein lies our problem.
taH:
>And finally, as ghunchu'wI' pointed out, in the first example there's no
>need to get so fancy. /tlhIngan Hol SoQ vImuch/ "I present a Klingon
>language speech" works (though there is a little ambiguity: is it a speech
>in Klingon, or a speech about Klingon?).
That's part of the reason why I chose to try {tlhIngan Hol'e' SoQ vImuch}.
Voragh has already pointed out that {jatlh} might be more appropriate, and I
agree. But with the PowerPoint presentations, slides, videos and bells and
whistles that go with many of my university lectures, I think {much} might
still be appropriate. :D
Savan.
QeS lagh
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