tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jul 28 08:17:05 1997
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Re: KLBC: using pronouns as "to be"
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>Date: Sat, 26 Jul 1997 13:16:23 -0700 (PDT)
>From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>
>
>[email protected] on behalf of [email protected] wrote:
>> For example,
>> {tlhIngan jIHbej} means "I'm certainly a Klingon"?
>
>It does work, but I always try to keep as few suffixes on the pronoun as
>possible. They DON'T mean "to be," and shouldn't be forced into that role.
>
>{tlhInganna' jIH} would be sufficient. {-na'} indicates that when talking
>about me {jIH}, {tlhIngan} is exactly the right word to choose.
Agreed on all points. BUT sometimes -bej *is* the right tool for the job.
As in "{'Iv} ghaHbej baHwI''e'", for "Iv *IS* the gunner!" (as opposed to
someone else. Please don't get confused by the name, it's just a name, not
a special question-word in this case). To be sure, it rarely is good to
weigh down pronouns with suffixes, but sometimes it's right. Lots of them
start to bug me, though. For example, I would not like hearing "?yaS
jIHchoH" for "I started being an officer"; I'd much prefer "yaS vImoj",
etc.
>> In simpler words, do pronouns used as "to be something" obey the same rules
>> as ordinary verbs? If yes, {jIHwI'be'} could mean - but this is purely
>> stylistic -
>> "a thing that is not me". Or maybe {jIHbe'wI'}?
>
>No! Definitely not! Don't even bother trying to use {-wI'} on pronouns. It
>just doesn't work.
Certainly not. And if you'd like a reason, consider the fact that pronouns
as verbs are very much like verbs with their conjugation prefixes attached,
in that they indicate their subjects (if not their objects). Since the
subject is already indicated by the verb, it can't be filled with the
place-holder that -wI' uses for its meaning (the one that...).
~mark
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