tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Sep 01 09:26:29 1993

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Re: Where am I?



On Sep 1,  6:10am, Randall Holmes wrote:
> Subject: Re:  Where am I?
> 
> naDev vISovbe' 
> 
> does not say to me "I do not know this place", but "I do not know
> (something unspecified) at this place".  A better translation might be
> "I don't know it here" or "I am ignorant here".  The crucial point is
> that naDev is clearly locative; it is not an object (even if one does
> accept confusion of different sorts of objects)!
> 
>                         --Randall Holmes mughlaw'wI'

     This brings up my discontent with the marked parts of speech in TKD
concerning adverbials vs nouns. You are treating naDev as if it were an
adverbial. naDev is clearly marked in TKD as a noun. A noun can be an object.
Just because it is not the KIND of noun you would prefer as the object of
vISovbe' does not imply that there must be some other "it" there than naDev. 

     I find the use of naDev as noun less bothersome than the use of wa'leS
as a noun, yet I was resoundingly put in my place for suggesting that the
word should have been an adverbial, like DaH. I was told that wa'leS is a
noun that is USUALLY used adverbially, but would be quite legitimately used
as a noun. Similarly, I suggest that naDev is legitimately used as a noun and
so as the object in "naDev vISovbe'". As such, it would most simply be
interpreted as "I do not know this place."

--   charghwI'



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