tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Jan 04 05:33:26 1997

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napbe' 'ej Dalbe' _See Spot run_



ja' ghunchu'wI':

> T'Lark (Irene Gates) summarized:
>> Grammatically speaking, "See Spot run" is very weird, very English,
>> and neither simple nor boring.

> I disagree completely! This sentence is not weird at all.

<volchaHDu'Daj pep>  taQ nuq 'e' Sovchu'be'bej HolQeD (QeD yoSmey latlh
je), 'a DIvI' Hol mu'qachvam'e' (this construction) pe'vIl luja'chuqlI'
Holtejpu' qaStaHvIS tera'DIS law', 'ej qaSpa' DaHjaj 'oH pojchu' rIntaH
vay' 'e' vIHon.  vaj "nap 'ej Dal 'oH" jatlhlaH pagh.

It's very English, too.  DIvI' Hol HaDchoHDI' nov, _see Spot run_
jatlhlaH vay' 'e' tlhojchu'be'bej.

> "See Spot run" is a command: "Hey you -- see something."[...]
> The "something" there is another sentence: "Spot runs."

It's not a sentence (you don't say *_See Spot runs_), it is a small
clause.  It has also been analysed as a number of other things.

> Using sentences as objects is easy (and only slightly less boring):
> {qet "Spot" 'e' yIlegh} "Spot runs; see that."

Yes.  But the weird part is that Klingon does not make a distinction
between `see Spot run' and `see that Spot runs'.  In many if not most
Terran languages they are distinguished, the latter only being treated
as a `sentence as object' type of thing.

--'Iwvan

-- 
"mIw'e' lo'lu'ta'bogh batlh tlhIHvaD vIlIH [...]
 poH vIghajchugh neH jIH, yab boghajchugh neH tlhIH"
                                  (Lewis Carroll, "_Snark_ wamlu'")
Ivan A Derzhanski  <[email protected], [email protected]>
Dept for Math Lx,  Inst for Maths & CompSci,  Bulg Acad of Sciences
Home:  cplx Iztok  bl 91,  1113 Sofia,  Bulgaria


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