tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jun 02 10:47:15 1998

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Re: long weekend with MO

SuStel:
>According to what DloraH has said, {SIS} DOES need a subject, and that the
>subject to any Klingon who's taken elementary science classes.  Just because
>you can elide the subject (something which most everyone thought to be true,
>anyway) doesn't mean that the subject is a sort of "default" subject.  It
>may even be that Klingons never do state the subject, but it seems like
>there still is one.  What exactly is it?
 
ghunchu'wI':
: I can live happily with the definite but unstated subject, now that I know
: what its semantic role is.

We may all be picking at minutiae here (what else is new?), but saying
there's a "definite but unstated subject" implies it is known to everyone,
just that Klingons choose never to mention it. But, as SuStel asks, what
exactly is it?  What's the subject, for that matter, in "It's raining" or
"Pluit" or "Il pluie" or "Es regnet"?  Grammatically, the subject is "it"
(stated or not), but what is it's antecedant?  Although we can freely add
objects in English (it's raining cats and dogs, it's raining fire, etc.), we
can't add definite subjects.  In fact, if you were to actually state one
("The sky/air/atmosphere is raining") people would wonder what the hell you
were trying to say.  Does it really matter as long as you're understood?

I wonder how many other verbs do this in Klingon.  We know of {Do'Ha'} "It
is unfortunate" and maybe {wejpuH} "(It's) Charming!"  Surely {ped} "snow"
works the same way as {SIS}, and just possibly {jev} "storm" (if this
doesn't actually refer to military assault).  Is it usual to elide the
"subject" with other verbs in contexts that describe your surroundings:
{paS} "It's late", {Hurgh} "It's dark", {bIr} "It's cold", {va, tujqu'}
"What a scorcher!", etc.?  It certainly is simple and elegant.

'Tis a pity Klingons don't make small talk, or we'd have more examples.

Voragh

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