tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Apr 25 17:34:21 2004

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Re: Headless relatives and {SuDbogh Dargh 'ej wovbogh}

QeS lagh ([email protected]) 

ghItlhpu' SuStel:

>The thinking goes that /SuDbogh Dargh 'ej wovbogh/ may be more technically
>correct (that is, it follows the second-noun-is-elided explanation of TKD),
>but that a couple of verbs that are closely bound may be combined and
>treated somewhat as a single verb.  Thus, /SuDbogh 'ej wovbogh Dargh/
>wouldn't be out of the question, as /SuDbogh 'ej wovbogh/ 
>"blue/green/yellow
>and light" could be looked at as a single verb, and the meaning is the 
>same.
>This probably wouldn't work for more complex constructions.

The more complex it gets, the more displaced the head becomes. {SuDbogh 'ej 
wovbogh 'ej tujbogh 'ej wIbbogh 'ej jeDbogh Dargh} "the tea that's bitter, 
blue/green/yellow, light, thick and hot" just seems too hard to follow.

>This reasoning is conjecture, but it seems to fit canon: sometimes the
>second noun of conjoined verbs is elided, sometimes the first is.

>So yes, I would accept your phrases as reasonable.  However, in the case of
>the Romulan probe, I'd hesitate to change the order.  Since we know that
>/HoHwI'/ "killer" can be used by itself to refer to the Romulan
>hunter-killer probe, it may be that /romuluSngan Sambogh 'ej HoHbogh 
>nejwI'/
>is arbitrarily fixed as it is.  Without knowing, I'd tend to leave all 
>known
>phrases in the order I found them.

So the whole phrase would be treated as a unit. To be honest, if I saw 
{romuluSngan Sambogh nejwI' 'ej HoHbogh}, I would tend to think that the 
probe isn't a Romulan probe for seeking and killing; I'd think it's a probe 
for seeking and killing Romulans. I don't know why, but that's the feeling I 
get.

Savan.

QeS lagh

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