tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Dec 18 01:18:28 1995

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Re: {-meH} and {Sov} (was Re: KLBC: starting right back...)



> >On the other hand, the first one may be (according
> >to 6.2.4.) "She knows (the procedure to fix the engine)."
> >(the second correspondingly). I've never been very
> >comfortable with this usage of {-meH}. In order to
> >construct the meanings yoDtargh has given above, and
> >which I questioned, would one use sth. like
> >{mIw jonta' tI'meH Sov}?
> 
> Can anyone cite an canon (I'm beginning to hate that word) example of using
> {-meH} with {Sov}?  I think the usage is perfectly valid, and the problem
> HomDoq is having is due to thinking too much in English (or whatever his
> native language may be).  HomDoq, I read your sentence as "In order to repair
> the procedure's engine, he knows."  This makes no sense to me.  Perhaps to a
> native Klingon speaker, {jonta' tI'meH mIw Sov} is perfectly valid.
> 
I may have failed to communicate clearly...
when I said "I am not comfortable with" I wanted to
say "I have not yet understood how it is used" not
"I don't think one should use it this way"... sorry

so if jonta' tI'meH mIw means "procedure-to-fix-the engine",
it's O.K. for me. I'm just confused when Okrand talks about
"purpose clauses". As for the meaning of the sentence, I just
(after re-reading 6.2.4.) discovered, that objects of the
main verb precede the "purpose clause", even if it refers to
that verb rather than it's object... (see how confused I am?)
thus the explanation I just posted is of course :) wrong...

This however means one cannot distinguish exactly what the
"purpose clause" refers to. Especially I would like to know,
how one can refer to the subject of a sentence, e.g. is

*Qatlh jonta' tI'meH mIw

a grammatical expression for "the procedure to repair engines
is difficult"?

				HomDoq

--
----------------------------------------------------
Marc Ruehlaender	[email protected]
Universitaet des Saarlandes, Saarbruecken, Germany
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