tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jan 31 13:27:23 1995
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Re: KLBC: QutneS ghIth: Part 3
- From: "Mark E. Shoulson" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: KLBC: QutneS ghIth: Part 3
- Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 16:27:17 -0500
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]> (message from Marc Ruehlaender on Tue, 31 Jan 1995 02:55:54 -0500)
>Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 02:55:54 -0500
>Originator: [email protected]
>From: Marc Ruehlaender <[email protected]>
[ jIH SoH je = tlhIH ? ]
>Now, German - my native language - does distinguish
>the two pronouns (at least if you drop the -neS).
>The concept seems quite clear to me:
>You have a subject, which is composed of several
>nouns joined by a noun conjunction.
>The verb prefix reflects the grammatical subject,
>so it must be plural.
Yeah... And Hebrew distinguishes them too, and generally does the same
thing (though at least Biblical Hebrew sometimes does odd stuff, making the
verb agree with the noun nearest it, regardless of the presence of another,
as in "And he-took Moses and Aaron" using third-person singular for the
verb even though the subject is plural (the sentence means "And Moses and
Aaron took")).
>In English you'd surely say
>What WERE me and my mum looking for?
>Not: *What WAS me and my mum looking for?
Good point!
>The same goes for second person.
>So I'm inclined to think, there's no other way,
>though I'm not a linguist, and may be proven wrong.
I'm inclined to agree with you. Besides, what's the alternative?
> Marc 'Doychlangan'
~mark