tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Feb 25 11:28:37 1999
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Re: qama'
In a message dated 2/24/1999 10:05:17 PM US Mountain Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:
<< The Klingon Dictionary disagrees with you (again). The relevant section
is small; I will state it in its entirety here.
TKD section 4.1. "Pronominal prefixes", page 32:
| Each Klingon verb begins with a single prefix that indicates
| who or what is performing the action described by the verb
| and, when relevant, who or what is the recipient of that
| action. In other words, Klingon verb prefixes indicate both
| the subject and the object of the sentence.
The next section contains a sentence that underscores the idea:
| Note that both the subject and the object are combined into a
| single prefix.
-- ghunchu'wI'
>>
=====================
No, TKD points out that I am correct. You are misinterpreting what TKD says,
probably because you have not had the courses in linguistics that my college
training forced me to have.
TKD p32. I do not need to tell you what it says. You have copied it
correctly from the dictionary.
You are misinterpreting the word "indicates." The prefix is NOT the subject
and/or the object; the prefix only indicates who or what is doing the action
of the verb to whom or what. Unless MO says that Klingon is so unlike the
American Indian languages of the Southwest that these prefixes ARE the subject
and/or the object, I will continue to believe what my college linguistics
courses taught me.
Take note of TKD p32 "Unlike Klingn nouns, Klingon verbs may take prefixes.
Thus, if suffix types are indicated as numbers, the structure of a Klingon
verb is:
PREFIX-VERB-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9
The suffixes are NOT numbers. The numbers are NOT suffixes.
Websters dictionary: Indicate: "to direct attention to, to point out, show,
to denote the probability of, to state in brief, symptoms, to make known
(indicatus, L.)."
I fear I cannot find that "indicate" means "equals" or "is."
Okrand has revealed that TKD was written as a "guide" for lay persons to learn
Klingon imperfectly. He has stated that he has used terms English-speaking
people would read and understand. I believe that he uses Subject and Object
in the chart on p33 for clarity of what the pronominal prefixes indicate only.
The prefixes are still prefixes, not subjects and/or objects.
peHruS