tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Mar 15 08:54:53 1999
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Re: -moH Curiousity {was Re: deep structures}
- From: [email protected]
- Subject: Re: -moH Curiousity {was Re: deep structures}
- Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 11:54:35 EST
ja' peHruS:
> 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."
It looks as if you are seeing /-moH/ as turning the basic verb sense from
active to passive. Evidently not: just a little further down from where this
section (4.2.4, page 38) of TKD says
/tIjwI'ghom vIchenmoH/ ... might also be translated
"I cause a boarding party to BE FORMED" [emphasis added by jey'el]
it also says
/chenmoH/ "he/she makes, creates" could be translated
"he/she causes to TAKE SHAPE" ... [emphasis added by jey'el]
The latter statement, interestingly enough for the current discussion, is
preceded by this one:
Normally, the best English translation for a verb with /-moH/ does not
contain the word "cause".
The translation "he/she causes to take shape" is his example of the
awkwardness of such English phrasings.
--jey'el