tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jan 19 08:55:33 1995
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Re: KLBC warriors etc.
>Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 10:07:38 -0500
>Originator: [email protected]
>From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
>More good stuff for beginners.
>According to tsai kat clio-international:
>> Assorted other sentences:
>>
>> 1. De' vIleghmo'pu' choHoHnIS 'e' vISov. "Because I saw the information,
>> I know that you have to kill me." Does <-nIS> express the correct
>> sense of necessity? Is <-'e'> used correctly?
>Yes. This looks perfect.
Um... no. I mean, the 'e' is fine, but it's vIleghpu'mo'. -mo' is a
type-9 suffix, and comes *after* the type-7 -pu'.
>> 2. batlh Heghpu' valQIS'e'. "As for Valkris, she died honorably."
>>
>> Is <'e'> used correctly?
>We are not sure. My own interpretation is that this is the
>equivalent of emphasizing the subject, as in the following
>context, when the 2nd speaker is somewhat distracted:
>1st speaker: batlh Heghpu' valQIS.
>2nd speaker: batlh Heghpu' matlh Dajatlh'a'?
>1st speaker: ghobe. batlh Heghpu' valQIS'e'!
>Basically, it emphasizes the noun. Krankor found this very
>useful to disambiguate the head noun of a relative clause when
>the verb with {-bogh} has both an explicit subject and object.
>Okrand agreed and now, that is the most grammatically
>productive use of {-'e'}. As for its original intent by Okrand,
>it does not seem to really work the way Nick explains that a
>topicalizer works in other languages. Instead, it just seems to
>emphasize the noun, much like an English speaker would say a
>noun with a louder, more strained voice.
I talked to Nick about this, and I think I understand the difference and
where he's coming from. I'm gonna try to explain it, even though he
probably should.
What it boils down to is two concepts in linguistics, focus and topic.
Okrand calls -'e' a topic marker, but he uses it in all his examples as a
focus marker, and that's how I tend to view it. Nick thinks it's really a
topic marker.
"Focus" is new information in the sentence. In charghwI''s example above,
the use of -'e' brings in valQIS as new information to the listener (new
because the listener obviously didn't hear aright, in this case). In
English, we use circumlocutions like "It is X that..." to express focus.
"De''e' vIghajnIS": "It's the INFORMATION I need." "batlh Hegh valQIS'e'":
"It was VALKRIS who died honorably", and so on.
"Topic" is old information that's being brought to the fore. We use
phrases like "As for..." in English to express topic. "As for Valkris (she
was already mentioned before), she died honorably." "As for the
information (we already talked about it), I needed it (which you may or may
not have known)." Nick maintains that Okrand intended -'e' to be a topic
marker (which is what he called it) and not a focus marker (which is how he
and we use it). Who's right? Who can say. Okrand can. But that's the
deal.
~mark