tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun May 25 16:40:58 1997
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Sentence really as object
- From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Sentence really as object
- Date: Sun, 25 May 97 23:19:38 UT
jatlh charghwI':
> I tend to remember this when there is an explicit {'e'}, but at
> one point I thought the rule did not apply to {neH} since I see
> it as fundamentally different from other Sentence As Object
> constructions.
I've got a pet theory on that (no surprise there). Suppose that {neH}
sentences work the same way, but instead of using a pronoun to represent the
entire previous sentence, and instead of merely *dropping* the {'e'}, the
previous sentence itself is the object?
Consider
verengan HoH tlhIngan 'e' vIlegh
I saw the Klingon kill the Ferengi.
If we change to {neH}:
verengan HoH tlhIngan vIneH.
I want the Klingon to kill the Ferengi.
Now, suppose we added a time context, or an adverbial, or something, to the
second sentence:
verengan HoH tlhIngan DaHjaj 'e' vIlegh
Today I saw the Klingon kill the Ferengi.
This is how it works so far as we know (though there have been variations).
The {neH} sentence would work differently, however:
DaHjaj verengan HoH tlhIngan vIneH.
Today I wanted the Klingon to kill the Ferengi.
Here's the sentence again, with some explanatory marks:
DaHjaj (verengan HoH tlhIngan) vIneH.
The bit in parenthesis is what would normally be replaced by {'e'}. This
time, according to this speculation, the very sentence itself is the object.
The beauty of this idea is that it explains one of those variations in canon
on this topic:
reH DIvI' Duj vISuv vIneH
I've always wanted to fight a Federation ship. (Spoken by Captain Klaa in
Star Trek V.)
If he's saying this:
reH (DIvI' Duj vISuv) vIneH,
it makes perfect sense. Sure, there can be some ambiguity with the
adverbials. So? Maybe there's even an as-yet undiscovered rule stating that
the first sentence of a sentence-as-object using {neH} cannot have any sort of
adverbials or Type 5 suffixed nouns. Who knows?
This might even explain why Azetbur apparently says {'e' neHbe' vavoy}, when
{neH} isnt' supposed to use {'e'}. You need *something* there, and she's not
going to repeat the whole sentence, so she uses {'e'}. I imagine this is an
acceptable grammatical shortcut for Klingons.
--
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97399.0