tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Sep 18 10:27:38 1994

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing



[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

Re: Recent Musings...



According to R.B Franklin:
> 
> 
> On Tue, 13 Sep 1994 [email protected] wrote:
> > ...  The key sentence is:
> > 
> > 2a. 'avwI' jeybogh qama' loDnI'
> > 
> > charghwI' pointed out that this has multiple interpretations, and
> > offered the use of {-'e'} as a disambiguator...

> >  d. 'avwI'    jeybogh qama''e' loDnI'
> > 
> > When it came to the example in (d), ~mark stepped in, and pointed out
> > that TKD 3.4 prohibits the use of type 5 suffixes on the first noun of a
> > noun-noun...
> > 
> > 3a. * ['avwI' jeybogh qama]'e'  loDnI'  (clearly wrong)
> >  b.   ['avwI' jeybogh qama''e'] loDnI'  (unobjectionable)
> > 
> 
> As you can tell from my example above, I like to think that you can use Type 
> 5 noun suffixes to refer to subordinate, relative and purpose clauses as 
> a whole, and not to just to a specific, indiviual noun.  But, if I 
> understand you correctly, (please forgive me if I don't) if you are 
> suggesting using {-'e'} on a relative clause as a whole, I don't think 
> it would be wise to use {-'e'} to refer to an entire relative clause 
> containing both a subject and object because you still may want to use 
> the {-'e'} to distinguish the head noun of the clause.

No, I think you are missing something. The idea is that the
{-'e'} is not being applied to {qama'} as a noun in the
noun-noun construction. It is applied to {qama'} as part of the
relative clause, which is to say that {-'e'} is not applying
itself to {qama'} in {qama' loDnI'}, which violates the rules
in TKD, but to {qama'} in {'avwI' jeybogh qama''e'}. This is
not to say that {-'e'} is being applied to the entire clause.
It is simply PARTICIPATING in the clause and not the noun-noun
construction. The clause, including the {-'e'} is acting
grammatically as a single noun, which is the first noun of the
noun-noun possessive construction.

That was my intent in the first place, but since that seemed
objectionable to ~mark, I accepted that we had a problem here.
Holtej was stepping in to more strongly state my original
argument. I do not consider the issue especially resolved at
this point and think it is one of those things that needs to go
to Okrand with both sides argued clearly.

> I don't know 
> you would be able to topicalize the relative clause and the head noun of 
> the clause simultaneously without using two {-'e'}'s.
> E.g.	'avwI''e' jeybogh qama','e'   loDnI' 
> 	'avwI'	  jeybogh qama''e''e' loDnI'
> (It isn't very pretty.  {{:-(  )

This second version is totally unacceptable. No way, no how can
you put two {-'e'} suffixes on one word.

> yoDtargh

charghwI'



Back to archive top level