tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Jun 08 20:17:48 1997

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Re: jajlo'



On Thu, 5 Jun 1997 19:16:10 -0700 (PDT)  "Q'ISto'va (Eliseo 
d'Annunzio, Esq.)" <[email protected]> wrote:


> On Thu, 5 Jun 1997, Mark E. Shoulson wrote:
> 
> > Can {Qong} take an object?  

This is a decidedly uninteresting question. Until we have some 
sort of canon example showing the relationship between this verb 
and its object, we have no basis for any transitive translation. 
We have no common context from which one person can symbolize a 
thought and the other can interpret the symbol. If the TKD 
definition implies an object and suggests what kind of object, 
it can be transitive (as in {SaH}="care about"). If we have have 
canon revealing transitivity we did not initially expect (like 
{Dub}, which has only appeared transitively in canon, even 
though most of us expected it to be intransitive).

Meanwhile, taking a word that has a definition that strongly 
suggests it is intransitive and that has several intransitive 
canon examples with no transitive examples (like {Qong}) and 
daydreaming about whether or not it might be transitive...

"Vague, wittering and indecisive"!

charghwI'






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