tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat May 11 17:58:07 1996
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re: Pong
- From: "ZIEBA,MACIEJ STANISLAW,MR" <[email protected]>
- Subject: re: Pong
- Date: Sat, 11 May 1996 20:57:33 EDT
"Mark J. Reed" <[email protected]> wrote:
>Uhm, no. The direct object of the English verb "to call" and "to name"
>is the name. The callee or namee is the indirect object. In English,
>but apparently not in Klingon, nouns in a sentence can't just be there;
>they have to be either a subject, an object (of the verb [direct or indirect] o
> of a
>preposition), a predicate nominative, or a noun in apposition. I think that
>covers the possibilities, but I may have missed something. In any
>case, each noun must serve some grammatical function.
>
>"Men call me . . . Tim."
>
>Subject: men
>Verb: call
>Direct object: Tim
>Indirect object: me
I think you are wrong. *me* is the direct object and *Tim* is *a predicate
nominative*. You got confused by the English syntax which puts indirect
object before a direct one, but (in most cases) you can change an Indirect
object into a prepositional one with *to* or *for*
Can you change it into *Men call Tim to me/for me*? that'll change the
meaning of the sentence drastically, unlike
*Men give me flowers* and *Men give flowers to me*.
The (Indoeuropean) languages that use cases are in a better situation:
In most cases:
Direct object is in Accusative
Indirect object is in Dative
Predicate niminative is in Nominative case (well, in Slavic languages it
is often in Instrumental case, so it's even easier to detect the difference).
>Judging by canon examples, Klingon is not so picky about such matters,
>so it's not necessary to say {jIHvaD *tIm ponglu'}; you can say {*tIm
>muponglu'}. I prefer the former form, but that's a personal choice.
Your own example proves the contrary. {mu-} means *they-me* ans *Tim*
has not the meaning of *me* in any case.
------------------------------
Qapla'
macheq
macheq noychoH jembatoQ
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