tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Oct 02 09:51:23 1997

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

Re: KLBC: better

[email protected] on behalf of Qov wrote:
> At 05:27 97-10-01 -0700, qoror wrote:
> }MO might explain that {'e'} is somehow akin to {-'e'} and the same rule
> }applies.
> 
> nuqjatlh? chut Daqelbogh yIngu'.

qoror is referring to the rule in the Addendum, 6.7, and to the apparently 
misplaced adverbial in the SkyBox card sentence.

I believe we've seen adverbials with Sentences As Object exactly two times:

	reH DIvI' Duj vISuv vIneH
	I've always wanted to engage a Federation ship.  (Star Trek V)

	DuraS tuq tlhIngan yejquv patlh luDub 'e' reH lunIDtaH DuraS be'nI'pu'
		lurSa' be'etor je.
	The sisters of the House of Duras, Lursa and B'Etor, are constantly
		seeking a higher standing for the House of Duras within the Klingon High
		Council.  (SkyBox S26)

Neither one of these sentences conforms to the way we typically say these 
things should work.  The first one has the adverbial before the FIRST sentence 
(when it obvoiusly applies to the second; he always WANTED, he didn't always 
FIGHT), and the second has the adverbial after the {'e'}, not before.

In fact, there's NO evidence at all that adverbials come before {'e'}.  
(Unless --hee hee-- you are willing to entertain my notion that the first 
sentence of a {neH} construction itself is being used directly as the object, 
rather than indirectly by using a pronoun.)

That second sentence is really a whopper.  It shows us the transitivity of 
{Dub} (though not for the first time, that was SkyBox card S14), it gives us 
the first appearances of the exact pronunciations of {DuraS}, {lurSa'}, and 
{be'etor}, it has that funky adverbial positioning, it's got an aspect suffix 
on the second sentence of a Sentence As Object, and it's got what I believe 
was our first evidence that apposition is allowed.

But then, the next sentence on that card is

	ngoDvam luchavmeH ghawran maghpu' be'nI'pu'.
	To this end, the sisters have acted against Gowron,

This sentence is missing the {lu-} prefix on {maghpu'}, even though it's used 
everywhere else in the card where appropriate.

So does this mean that we're using bad grammar with {'e'}, or are there too 
many errors in the card to trust it?  Many have opinions on this topic.

SuStel
Stardate 97752.9

Back to archive top level