tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Dec 19 23:33:28 1994
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vay' and lu'
- From: Marc Ruehlaender <[email protected]>
- Subject: vay' and lu'
- Date: Tue, 20 Dec 94 8:35:40 MEZ
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>; from "Mark J. Reed" at Dec 19, 94 12:43 (noon)
- Mailer: Elm [revision: 66.25]
maHvaD ghoSlI'ghach ja'pu' marqoS:
(2Qs: is this grammatically correct?
and does it convey the intended meaning?)
>
> \ I think vay' is the only way to express an unspecified
> \ OBJECT, or could you simply use the ...-it prefixes?
> You can always leave the subject and/or object "unspecified" and rely on
> the prefixes, but this is different from vay', which lets you explicitly
> specify that the subject or object is unspecified, if you catch my meaning.
> It is precisely the difference between "Someone does something to something."
> and "He does something to it." in English.
>
> -marqoS
If the difference is, like in German, that "he" and "it"
have to be specified (explicitly or implicitly) by context
whereas "s.o." and "s.th." don't, then I understand the
meaning, but then vay' IS the only way of expressing
_unspecified_ (in the above sense) objects, while
unspecified subjects could as well be expressed by -lu'.
Is that so?
Marc 'Doychlangan'
--
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Marc Ruehlaender [email protected]
Universitaet des Saarlandes, Saarbruecken, Germany
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