tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Nov 13 16:45:28 1999
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Re: KLBC / DaHjaj: lupwI' DaSmeywIj ghap
>From: "Andeen, Eric" <[email protected]>
>Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 11:57:02 -0700
>
>jatlh pIl'o':
>>>> Ha'DIbaH 'oHpu'chugh puH DujwIj vaj vIbach.
>> In the sentence "If there is a car heaven, then..." what
>> is the subject and what is the verb?
>
>I just do Klingon grammar :) Actually, the verb would be "is", and the
>subject would be "there", acting as some sort of funky pronoun. An eighth
>grade English teacher could probably explain it better, but that's all I can
>do.
Um, actually, the "there" in the English is an adverb, not the subject.
The subject is "a car", and the "there" is an adverb of place: "a car is
there". Idiomatically, when the "there" is transposed to the beginning the
location aspect is weakened (you don't really talk about a particular place
whenever you use "there is") and the existence aspect of the verb "to be"
(which has gobs of meanings, so needs all the help it can get) is
emphasized.
~mark