tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Nov 29 13:51:10 1994
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Re: -moH Ponderances
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: -moH Ponderances
- Date: Tue, 29 Nov 94 16:50:58 EST
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>; from "...Paul" at Nov 29, 94 1:45 pm
According to ...Paul:
>
> -moH makes an intransitive word transitive, yes? The object becomes the
> noun which is becoming the verb (ie. Say' 'oH, it is clean, becomes
> 'oH vISay' jIH, I cause it to be clean).
Realize that {jIH} is unnecessary here. And you forgot the
{-moH}, which was the point of your example... So, "I cause it
to be clean is:
vISay'moH.
or
'oH vISay'moH
The {'oH} clears up a little ambiguity, making it clear that
the thing you are cleaning cannot use language and is not
plural. Adding {jIH} at the end adds no meaning to the
sentence, except to add emphasis, for example, if you are
pointing out loudly to others that it was YOU who cleaned it,
and not some random other person. It's like the difference
between "I cleaned it," and "*I* cleaned it."
> Does this prevent -moH from being used on transitive verbs? If I wanted
> to say, "I caused him to drop it", as it stands, I think I would have to
> re-cast it as "'oH chagh ghaH 'e' vIqaSmoH", "I caused to happen that he
> drops it".
You got a grip on this one first try. Since the subject of a
verb with {-moH} is really the subject of causation and the
object of the verb with {-moH} is really the subject of the
verb with {-moH}, there's no way to indicate yet another layer
of being an object. That slot in the grammar is filled.
Instead of feeling like you are losing {-moH} as a tool for
transitive verbs, think of it as {-moH} being a special tool
built just for intransitive verbs. It's one of those "half
full / half empty" things.
> What would be the implications of "chaghmoH"? What would be the object,
> the person dropping, or the object being dropped? Where would the other
> word go? Or should I just shut up and get to class before I realize that
> it says in the TKD that -moH can only go on intransitive words?
I don't know if it says so there or not. I just remember that
this issue has been tackled many times before and the
conclusion has consistently been that {-moH} is a special tool
built to add a specific kind of transitivity (causation) to
otherwise intransitive verbs.
> ..Paul
charghwI'
--
\___
o_/ \
<\__,\
"> | Get a grip.
` |