tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jul 20 12:50:44 1999
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RE: KLBC verbs with moH
- From: "Andeen, Eric" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: KLBC verbs with moH
- Date: Tue, 20 Jul 1999 12:51:33 -0700
ghel qeyloS. jatlh:
> Are ALL verbs with moH transitive?
Keep in mind that Okrand avoids words like "transitive", although he seems
to understand when we use them.
To be completely clear, let's call a verb which *can* take an object
"transitive". For example, <Sop> is transitive because I can say <qagh
vISop>. If what I am eating is unimportant or understood, I can also say
<jISop>, with no object at all, but the verb <Sop> is still transitive (as I
have defined it, anyway).
So in answer to your question, any verb with <-moH> must be transitive. If I
cannot say <X V-moH Y> given a suitable X and Y, then I cannot say <V X>,
meaning that the verb <V> cannot take a subject. I suppose it's possible
that there could be a verb which could only take an indefinite subject -
<SIS> has been suggested as such - but until we have some fairly convincing
evidence of this, it is quite safe to assume that any verb can have a
subject, and any verb with <-moH> can have an object.
pagh
Beginners' Grammarian
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