tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Mar 09 12:15:41 1996

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Re: Time (Out)



According to Alan Anderson:
> 
> David Wood (beating a dead targh) writes:
> >Regarding this pesky chronology thing... has anyone tried:
> >
> ><nuq rep?>
> >
> >meaning "What is the hour?"
> 
> It would have to be {rep nuq} -- if you consider {nuq} to be a
> pronoun like {'Iv} which can act as a "to be" verb.  And, yes,
> I think that was an early suggestion.

Has it ever been established that {'Iv} can be used as a verb?
So far, I only know that question verbs can be used as nouns or
adverbials. I do not credit them with the versatility of
pronouns, which constitute a special case.

If it were established that {nuq} and {'Iv} could be used as
verbs, then it would be a short jump to have {nuq} be used
adjectivally to function as "which" in the way many people here
have tried, but at this point I really can't see that as valid
without Okrand's canon backing it up.

If the oddity of Okrand's using both word orders (SoH 'Iv} and
{'Iv SoH} in various places is cause to conclude that {'Iv} is
being used as the verb, well, I would tend to just think Okrand
wasn't really careful about this one and did not necessarily
intend to give free reign to the use of the question word as a
verb.

> -- ghunchu'wI' (qep'a'Daq maqIHchuqjaj!  tugh mupchuqjaj QuchDu'maj!)

charghwI'
-- 

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