tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Nov 30 20:26:00 1997
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Re: Noun-noun with {'e'}
mujang SuStel:
>> vIpar 'e' meq vIqaw.
>> "I dislike it. I remember (the previous sentence)'s reason."
>>Can someone tell me why I shouldn't use {'e'} as the first noun of a pair
>>of nouns in this way?
>
>For one thing, pronouns are never used in noun-noun constructions (except
>for things like {jIH Dung} "area above me"). This fact is stated explicitly
>on TKD page 52.
Quoting from the end of TKD "5.1. Pronouns":
Pronouns are not used in possessive constructions in the
way nouns are; instead, the set of possessive noun suffixes is
used (section 3.3.4).
There's no *prohibition* as such on the use of pronouns in a noun-noun.
KGT's description of the "special set of nouns" expressing prepositional
concepts is the only known exception, but it does indicate that the rule
in TKD is not as airtight as you put it. TKD doesn't say "never" here.
(The wording is similar to the description in section 6.2.5 telling us to
use {net} instead of {'e'}, but we do have canon that uses {'e' X-lu'}.)
>And there is no Type 4 noun suffix devoted to {'e'} or {net}.
True as far as it goes, though we are explicitly told that {'e'} and {net}
are treated as third-person singular (TKD 6.2.5, p.65), and they obviously
are not talking about people. :-) But since there isn't such a suffix, I'd
expect the "special pronouns" referred to on TKD page 65 might get the same
special treatment as pronouns used with the "special set" of prepositional
nouns referred to on KGT page 24.
But I don't want to pursue this further; it's WAAAAY too speculative.
-- ghunchu'wI'