tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Nov 30 14:45:55 1998
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Re: Another question
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Another question
- Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 17:45:38 -0500 (Eastern Standard Time)
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>
- Priority: NORMAL
On Sun, 29 Nov 1998 16:46:14 -0800 (PST) Patrick Masterson
<[email protected]> wrote:
> I have noticed that there seems to be some debate on using -'e' to flag
> the head noun in a relative clause. This doesn't seem to be a problem,
> unless you use a pronoun as a verb, in which case the subject gets a
> -'e'.
> Let's say I want to write "The Terran is the officer who got hit by the
> guest."
> How would I do that?
tera'ngan yaS qIp meb.
I know that this is not the general rule you are looking for,
but in your example, I can't imagine a situation in which this
sentence won't convey the meaning you want.
The simple truth is that some tools don't work in some
circumstances because of the way rules interact. The more
interesting case is when you combine a relative clause with a
noun-noun construction. Before Okrand offered that we could use
{-'e'} to mark head nouns, he made the rule that the first noun
in noun-noun can't use any Type 5 suffix. So, if we want to say,
"The guest hit the brother of the Terran who sells knives," we
have a problem. We can't say:
* tajmey ngevbogh tera'ngan'e' loDnI' qIp meb.
That breaks the rule about Type 5 suffixes on the first noun of
a noun-noun construction. Instead, we have to use two sentences.
tajmey ngev tera'ngan. tera'nganvam loDnI' qIp meb.
In most cases, when relative clauses don't work well, just use
two sentences and repeat the would-be head noun with a {-vam} in
the second sentence. This works reliably.
charghwI' 'utlh