tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jul 07 15:19:28 2004

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I/we with {-vIp}

MorphemeAddict ([email protected])

• From: [email protected]
• Subject: I/we with {-vIp}
• Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2004 18:18:45 EDT

Concerning the type 2 verb suffix {-vIp} used with first person subjects.
In TKD 4.2.2 (p. 37) it says:

  {-vIp} <afraid>
    {choHoHvlp} <you are afraid to kill me> ({HoH} <kill>)
    {nuqIpvIp} <they are afraid to hit us> ({qIp} <hit>)
  This suffix is rarely used with a prefix meaning <I> or <we>.
Though it is grammatically correct, it is culturally taboo.

I wondered if this were true even if the verb were negative.  Sure enough, on 
p. 49 there are these examples of subject "we" used with {-vIp}.  

    {pIHoHvIpbe'qu'} <we are NOT afraid to kill you>
    {pIHoHvIpqu'be'} <we are not AFRAID to kill you>
    {pIHoHqu'vIpbe'} <we are not afraid to KILL you>

It seems highly unlikely that a culturally taboo sentence would be used to 
illustrate an unrelated grammatical point, so apparently the taboo is strictly 
against the speaker acknowledging his own fear.

lay'tel SIvten

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