tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jan 16 07:00:08 1995
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Re: more beginner drivel ;)
- From: [email protected]
- Subject: Re: more beginner drivel ;)
- Date: Mon, 16 Jan 1995 09:59:56 -0500
>There appears to be at least one canon example of the implied, generic
>"it" in Klingon: Do'Ha'. (It is unfortunate.)
Don't be so sure it's not a shortening of {Do'Ha' ghu'}.
As a matter of fact, this 'generic' "it" in English only serves to represent
an up-coming clause.
"It is impossible for you to defeat the enemy."
Here, "to defeat the enemy" is the subject and "is impossible for you" is the
predicate. The "it" refers to the infinitive subject. This is just the way
English speakers have arbitrarily decided to recast the slightly more
convoluted, "To defeat the enemy is impossible for you."
A similar thing happens in constructions like, "It's important that I see
them," where "it" refers ahead to the subject clause "that I see them."
However, as is well-known, Klingon has no Sentence-As-Subject construction,
so we are left to deal with such concepts in other ways. And that I leave as
an exercise for you.
>yoDtargh
Guido