tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Nov 28 14:07:29 2011

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Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Noun cases

Philip Newton ([email protected]) [KLI Member] [Hol ghojwI']

On Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 22:57, David Trimboli <[email protected]> wrote:
> I was listing the noun cases of Klingon, and I can't find all the
> terminology I want.
>
> So far I have the following list:
>
> locative/lative (-Daq)
> ablative (-vo')
> causal (-mo')
> dative (-vaD)
> genitive (-)
>
> I postulate the existence of a "null case" for genitive because when a noun
> acts in a genitive fashion (the first noun of a noun-noun construction), it
> cannot decline into another case.

I would say Klingon doesn't have a genitive case, just like English
doesn't have a vocative case even though you can say, like Alice, "O
Mouse!". After all, if the noun doesn't get marked for the case, I
don't think it makes sense to call it a case.

Rather, in situations where other languages might use the genitive
case, Klingon uses the default, unmarked case. ("Nominative", or
whatever you want to call it.)

> I'm stuck on -'e', though. Looking through Wikipedia's list of grammatical
> cases <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_grammatical_cases> I cannot find
> anything that obviously refers to the function seen by the "subject" of a
> to-be construction, or by the {SuvwI''e'} in {qIbDaq SuvwI''e' SoH Dun law'
> Hoch Dun puS} in Star Trek V. Does anybody know whether linguists have a
> name for this topic case?

Personally, I think -'e' is a topic marker, not a case marker.

I'm not sure sure -mo' is a case, either.

-vaD, -Daq, and -vo' are fairly classic cases, I agree.

> Is there a case that combines the functions of locative (in/on/at) and
> lative (to, into)?

Case names are rarely perfect fits for the range of usage they see -
for example, German has a case called "dative" but it's not only used
for giving. (For that matter, Klingon -vaD is also a benefactive.)

I'd call -Daq the locative case, even if it can also mark the goal of
movement rather than merely a location.

Cheers,
Philip
-- 
Philip Newton <[email protected]>

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