tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Oct 10 14:15:03 1994
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Re: Good day to die.
>From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
>Date: Fri, 7 Oct 94 17:26:51 EDT
>According to Thornton Rose:
>In this case, it means that today is a good day in order that
>he/she/it/they die(s). Somehow, the day has made a conscious
>choice to be good because if it didn't, then maybe it would be
>less likely that he/she/it or they would die. Note that when
>a verb has {-meH} on the end, it still needs an appropriate
>prefix indicating the person and number of the subject.
This is a sticky point, actually. I used to be completely convinced that
what you say here is true... but Krankor disabused me of that notion.
Apparently, "-meH" is the exception, and can be used impersonally.
Consider the canon example from TKD: Dochvetlh DIlmeH Hugh 'ar DaneH?
(translated: how much do you want for that?) There is no prefix on
"DIlmeH", and third-person doesn't really work either. It appears that
purpose-clauses *can* be used in an impersonal fashion, after all. I try
to avoid it, but it does turn out mighty useful on occasion.
>charghwI'
~mark