tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Feb 16 09:16:39 1994

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Re: Word used by Marnen



Nick NICHOLAS says:
: 
: Hu'tegh! nuq ja' Mark E. Shoulson jay'?
[...]
: =deal with it.  We have the same problem with relative clauses as objects
: =and "-vaD" or "-Daq" or "-mo'" words at the front of them: "DujDaq puq
: =DaqIppu'bogh vIlegh" could mean "I see the child which you hit on the ship"
: =or "on the ship, I see the child which you hit" (i.e. the seeing or hitting
: =may have happened on the ship).  We cope.
: 
: Although there's a third interpretation, "I see the ship where you hit the
: child", which we reject. Incidentally, in the fine print of TKD, the
: first translation is wrong, since the "head" is not "before or after" the
: "relative clause". Since, however, Okrand was probably simply trying to
: describe those languages in which the head is *inside* the relative
: clause (embedded), I certainly hope noone pays any attention to the letter
: of TKD, when its meaning is obvious. The alternative, I feel, which would
: even forbid *adverbs* in relative clauses, is just silly.
There's another possibility or two: "I see you who hit the child on the ship"
with all the permutations of what happened on the ship -- the seeing or
hitting.

: 
: Dammit, I wish Okrand would occasionally just say what he meant, even if
: it did mean using jargon. But we've been through all that before.
: 
peQoy! peQoy!

: -- 
: +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
:    Nick Nicholas.  The Nonce and Future Linguist. University of Melbourne.
:                         [email protected]
: "Henry Squirrel was thirsty. He walked over to the river bank where his good
: friend Bill Bird was sitting. Henry slipped and fell in the river. Gravity
: drowned." --- TALE-SPIN Story Generator, James Meehan, Yale AI Lab, 1975.
: 
: 

Qapla' Qichqemwi'vo'.
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