tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Aug 09 12:40:12 1999

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RE: KLBC: Purpose Clauses



jatlh DujHoD:

> I have been looking over TKW and found a confusing 
> sentence on page 5.

> SuvmeH 'ej charghmeH bogh tlhInganpu'.
> Klingons are born to fight and conquer.

> I do not understand the use of {'ej} in this sentence. 
> TKD says that {'ej} is only used to connect sentences, 
> but in this case, it appears to connect two purpose 
> clauses: {SuvmeH} and {charghmeH}. {SuvmeH} isn't a 
> complete sentence, is it? Why isn't this sentence:

> SuvmeH bogh tlhInganpu' 'ej charghmeH bogh chaH.
> Klingons are born for fighting and they are born for 
> conquering.

This is a case of TKD being a bit imprecise. The "sentence" conjunctions
('ej, qoj, and pagh) can actually join all kinds of clauses. We have this
example and several others, including the noun phrase <SuDbogh Dargh 'ej
wovbogh>, that demonstrate that these kinds of conjunctions can join several
different kinds of clauses.


pagh
Beginners' Grammarian

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