tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Mar 12 07:01:35 1999

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Re: -moH Curiousity {was Re: deep structures}



Probably we all agree on the causative cases with all three grammatical roles
filled:

/puqvaD Hol vIghojmoH/    "I teach the child the language."

No serious alternative to this has been proposed.
The questions concern the case with only two roles filled, the missing one
being the subject matter learned:   "I teach the child."

ter'eS:
> Here is my reasoning: in the simple sentence /Hol ghoj puq/, the language
> is the object of /ghoj/; it is the thing being learned.  Adding /-moH/ to
> the verb doesn't change this; the object of /ghoj/ remains the thing
> being "caused to be learned".  The object doesn't change to the person
> being "caused to learn".  To express that new role, MO has shown us that
> we must use the suffix /-vaD/: /puqvaD Hol ghojmoH qup/.  These
> relationships hold true even if the direct object isn't expressed:
> /puqvaD ghojmoH qup/ 'The elder teaches the child'.

vuDvam vIyajchu'.   

Now in the last example, /puqvaD ghojmoH qup/, the explicit direct object (the
information taught) is omitted.   But it might as well be present, since the
prefix for third person subject and third person direct object would be zero,
the same as for third person subject and no direct object.  It reads as "The
elder teaches it to the child."   So this isn't an example of the two-role
case in question.

Are there examples in canon of this construction with no subject-matter direct
object at all, even implicit in the prefix?  To do that we can use a first- or
second-person subject.  We can avoid the "prefix trick" issue by keeping the
learner object third person.  That gives:

?{puqvaD bIghojmoH}  "You teach the child."
I certainly hope this doesn't turn out to be the answer!!

or the alternative suggestion, 
?{puq DaghojmoH}    "You teach the child."
I much prefer this.
 
--jey'el	



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