Re: KLBC: Complex sentences

[Steven Boozer <sboozer@midway.uchicago.edu>]

At 08:07 PM 1/31/99, loD Doq wrote:
 
This is 10 days old, so it seems our BG missed it.  Allow me to get the ball rolling. ("Fools rush in ..." I guess.)

: How should I say things like:
: 	"I see you run."
: 	"I want to eat."
: 	"I think you are stupid."
: 	"She says that she thinks she could do it."
: I just don't know how to structure these, vis., what verbs go where what
: suffixes to use and the like. Is there a set formula? 
: 		[snip]
: these sentences have other sentences as objects, but not really. I mean,
: just look at the first one:

You almost figured it out for yourself.  Yes, there is a formula: the sentence-as-object (SAO).  Cf. TKD p.65f for an explanation of how this works.
 
: "I see" is <jIlegh> and "you run" is <bIqet>. But "I see you run"? Is it
: <bIqet jIlegh>? I don't think so. That just seems silly to me.

Good instincts.  You connect the two verbs with the special topic pronouns {'e'} "that" and, less often, {net}.  E.g.:

	bIqet 'e' vIlegh.
	I see you run. I see that you run.

Literally, "You run; I see that."  Notice that you have to use {vI-} on the second verb because {'e'} is its object.  Reversing the pronouns:

	jIqet 'e' Dalegh.
	You see me run. You see that I run.

There are, of course, a couple of wrinkles to this which are explained in TKD.  Try doing the others yourself.  Hint: {jatlh} "say" is what is known as a "verb of saying", one of those wrinkles I mentioned.


-- 
Voragh                       
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons