tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri May 05 11:38:38 1995
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Re: Transitivity
According to [email protected]:
>
> On Wed, 3 May 1995 22:06:20 -0400, [email protected] said:
...
> > Perhaps Klingons do not think of Klingon language verbs as being
> > transitive or intransitive at all. Transitivity is implied not by
> > the verb roots themselves but by pronomial verb prefixes.
...
> Verb prefixes come in two kinds: such as don't express an object
> ({jI-}, {bI-} etc.) and such as do ({vI-}, {Da-}, {mu-}, {Du-} etc.),
> and either (1) any Klingon verb can meaningfully take any verb prefix
> or (2) some verbs can't take a prefix which expresses an object.
>
> If (1), then it must be explained what, say, {vItIn} means, how its
> meaning is related to {jItIn} (is the relation the same as between
> {vIQong} and {jIQong}? between {vISop} and {jISop}?) and so forth.
Also recognize that vItIn must be somehow different from
vItInmoH, etc. Indeed, given that {-moH} can turn any
intransitive verb into a transitive one, if any verb we would
consider to be intransitive can be used transitively, we know
that causation can not be the nature of the transitivity. What
other kind of relationship could exist between a subject and
object through an intransitive action?
I find this especially interesting for verbs like {vIH}, which
I have always considered to be intransitive (though Krankor
posits that it can be used either transitively or
intransitively). If it is always intransitive, then {-moH}
serves perfectly to make it transitive. If it is always
transitive, then there is no way to make it intransitive, save
perhaps an odd use of {-'egh}. And why do I need either of
these suffixes if all verbs can be used both intransitively and
transitively?
> If (2), then the classification of verbs by transitivity is just as real,
> and just as essential, as in any other language.
I suspect that this is true and is the greatest single omission
of Okrand's in creating the language. I suspect that in his
mind, certain verbs are transitive while others are
intransitive, but he just didn't notate any of it, just as he
has not given the part of speech for any of the additional
vocabulary he has given us in HolQeD.
> --'Iwvan
charghwI'
--
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