tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Nov 12 05:23:14 1996

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Re: Stating the subject and verb prefixes; use of KLBC



Eric Yarnell writes:
>For example, would
>  puq legh jIH
>be correct, or must it be
>  puq vIlegh jIH

If you mean "I see the child" you do need to use the {-vI} prefix.
Except for verbs used to modify nouns adjectivally (TKD 4.4?), and
maybe those used in noun-modifying "purpose clauses", we always need
to use the appropriate prefix.  One of the prefixes is "empty"; it's
the one represented by "0" on the prefix chart (TKD page 32?).

The null prefix on your first sentence indicates third-person subject,
and there is an apparently singular third-person object, so the best
grammatical interpretation is "The monitor sees the child." :-)  This
sounds like a security camera in a nursery...it's not a bad sentence, 
but it's not the same thing as {puq vIlegh}.

-- ghunchu'wI'



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