tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Mar 10 09:26:51 1997
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Re: more on -moH qororvo'
jatlh ~mark:
>[...]
>All of which is rather beside the point. Klingon does NOT have a true
>passive. It just and simply doesn't. It has an impersonal, which can
>serve a similar function, but grammatically it remains an active voice: the
>object remains grammatically an object, it remains in the object place, and
>doesn't get promoted to subject (as the book did when it "was eaten" by the
>targ). Even "be honored", which *is* actually a passive construction in
>English (Jack honors Jill / Jill is honored [by Jack]) is just that:
>passive IN ENGLISH. In Klingon it is as active as "be happy" or "be flat":
>it indicates a state of being.
I see, I was confusing passive with stative. But, couldn't "The apple was
eaten" be stative? The apple is in a state of being eaten, right?
-HurghwI'