tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Mar 14 23:37:51 1999

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



In a message dated 3/14/1999 2:28:53 PM US Mountain Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:

<< ja' peHruS:
 >I answer my own question:  I can visualize students being caused to learn; I
 >cannot visualize a language being caused to learn anything.  For this
analysis
 >alone, I would suspect that the best Direct Object of {ghojmoH} is
 >{ghojwI'pu'}.
 
 You're answering your question by assuming that the entity being made to do
 something is the direct object of a verb with {-moH}.  Based on quite a lot
 of discussion here and the examination of a few examples from TKD and other
 sources, that assumption is shaky at best.
 
 >If I follow through on the pattern, I get {tlhIngan HolvaD ghojwI'pu'
ghojmoH
 >qup}.  But, since we're not doing anything for the benefit of {tlhIngan
Hol},
 >ostensibly, the only way I can see the phrase {tlhIngan HolvaD} fitting into
a
 >sentence like this is if we are allowed to consider it an Indirect Object or
 >*Second Object.  Some folks have talked about ditransitivity.  I do not know
 >if this fits into such a pattern.  I just feel that the Direct Object of
 >{ghojmoH} has to be someone who can be caused to learn.
 >
 >Comments?
 
 charghwI' and ter'eS have provided compelling arguments that the causation
 from {-moH} is applied to a verb's beneficiary, not to its object.  With a
 transitive verb like {ghoj}, that means the object of the verb is the same
 with or without the {-moH}. >>

===================================
TKD 'ay'vetlh vIlaDqa'pu'.  QeD ghojlaH ghojmoHwI'; ghojwI'pu' ghojbe'.
ghojwI'pu'vaD QeD ghojlaH ghojmoHwI'.  

After re-reading TKD's defintion re: {-moH}, I readily see that the DO object
of a verb with the suffix {-moH} is not being caused to do anything, rather it
is caused to become something.  {tIjwI'ghom vIchenmoH} obviously means "I
cause a boarding party to BE formed."  I retract any and all statements which
implied that "The teacher is causing students to BE learned."

Now, this means that an IO using {-vaD} makes sense to me.  {ghojwI'pu'vaD QeD
ghojmoH ghojmoHwI'} translates as "The teacher causes the science to BE
learned for the benefit of the students" or "The teacher teaches the science
TO the students."

Comments still welcome.

peHruS



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