tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Feb 09 00:55:11 1994

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Re: Adams Family Motto:



On Feb 9, 11:53am, Mark E. Shoulson wrote:
charghwI'vo':
> >Sorry, Nick. You can't nominalize a verb and then use a verb suffix on
> >it...
> >{legh} is a verb. {leghwI'} is a noun. {leghwI'laH} is a non-word...

~markvo': 
> Sorry, charghwI', but Nick's right.  His compound is ok.  You missed
> another meaning of "laH".  It isn't just a verb-suffix; it's also a noun in
> its own right, meaning "ability".  So "leghwI'laH" is a compound word of
> "leghwI'" plus "laH", meaning "seer's ability" (noun-noun construction,
> in one compound word, like jolpa')

     I do not feel bad for "missing" this one. If THAT were his intent, it
would be much more clearly stated as a noun-noun construction than as a
compound word. A simple space would have made the meaning much more clear.

     I also have never fully agreed with your theory that there is no
semantic difference between a noun-noun construction and a compound noun. In
{jolpa'}, I believe that the relationship between {jol} and {pa'} is one of
association, though not of possession and THAT is the kind of relationship
between nouns that I see as justifiable for new (not in canon) compound
nouns. When possession is the only relationship between the nouns, I think it
is much clearer to use the noun-noun construction without losing the space
between the nouns. There are examples of exceptions, like {SermanyuQ}, but I
genuinely believe that these are exceptions and not the rule.

     Otherwise, we might as well say you can use any noun as a noun suffix,
and {laH}, the noun becomes {-laH} the noun suffix. This is not pretty. After
looking at {leghwI'laH} again, I feel as strong as ever that it is a
non-word. If it were written as {leghwI' laH}, it would be a somewhat
unattractive, but acceptable noun-noun construction. I would REALLY like to
not see us consider this to be license to use {-laH} as a noun suffix without
something from Okrand indicating approval.

charghwI'



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