tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Nov 20 04:54:14 1996

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Re: KLBC Syntax - I'm Lost



SuStel, mISvam chenmoH QaghwIj, vaj jIjang.  *KLBC vIqImHa' 'e' yIHarQo'.

> Donald E. Vick said:
> >> You also said:
> >> That which does not kill us, makes us stronger
> >> muHoHbe'wI' muHoSmoHbej
> >> Which makes sense and in an order I understand.
> >     Actually, I believe that this was mine, and it's wrong.  The word order
> >should be reversed.  You probably picked this up when SuStel quoted it to
> >correct me.
> 
> Why is this wrong. It looks fine and makes sense????????????
> Okay, Purpose clauses come first, relative clause act as a noun and as such
> comes where the noun should object or subject, subordinate are variable
> (speaker preference).  I'm not a student of languages but the above appears
> to me as a complex (compound) sentence. So why is it backwards. I'm sure I'm
> missing something, if not are we putting things backwards just on accound of?
     There's no relative clause, and no purpose clause.  Perhaps you confuse
-meH with -moH.  Here is the sentence.

muHoSmoHbej = mu- HoS -moH -bej = It certainly causes me to be strong
muHoHbe'wI' = mu- HoH -be' -wI' = That which does not kill me

     There is no object in this sentence.  Therefore, it is verb - subject.
Remember that the verb suffix -wI' turns the verb into a noun, somewhat like
the English verb suffix -er (i.e. "kill" - verb, "killER" - noun).  Remember,
OBJECT - VERB - SUFFIX.  I hope this has helped.

taDI'oS vIq, law'wI'pu'vaD Holtej jIH
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| Thaddaeus Vick, Linguist to the Masses |    [email protected]  -or-    |
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| thirteen mullets of the second. Yeeha. | http://www.crl.com/~dvick |
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