tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Nov 23 10:49:44 1997
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Re: 'Iv qeylIS betleH chenmoHlu'?
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: 'Iv qeylIS betleH chenmoHlu'?
- Date: Sun, 23 Nov 1997 13:51:44 -0500 (Eastern Standard Time)
- Priority: NORMAL
So, can the indefinite subject be plural? That's what this all
comes down to. I suspect it can be plural, but I think that's a
Maltz judgement call.
charghwI'
On Sat, 22 Nov 1997 11:32:22 -0800 (PST) Alan Anderson
<[email protected]> wrote:
> ja' charghwI':
> >Well, {ja'chuqlu'} is possible with current grammar, but no
> >other prefix will work on it and there can be no object.
>
> [SFX: stretch...stretch...snap!]
>
> I can *almost* wrap my brain around this. {-chuqlu'} would imply to me that
> part of a plural indefinite subject does something to another part of the
> plural indefinite subject. I can manage to see what it's saying, but I can
> not quite hold onto it. It's very, very odd-sounding. I can't come up with
> a simple way to express the idea in English; all I can say is something like
> "A telling-each-other occurs." Its intended meaning is reasonably specific,
> but it's hard for me to describe. "One tells one another" just doesn't do it.
>
> -- ghunchu'wI'
>
>