tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Feb 09 11:51:24 2000

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RE: KLBC cheng Sa' may'bom bom mu' cha'DIch

jatlh DujHoD:

> Parentheses in Okrand's translations tend to confuse me. 
> AFAIK, he never explicitly explained them. qar'a'? So do 
> the parentheses mean that the contents of the parentheses 
> is optional, or that they must be used as the subject, or 
> that there must not be any subject? 

> For example:
> bIv   break (rules)

> Does this mean that "rules" or an equivalent noun must be 
> the object (e.g., {chut vIbIv})? Or does it mean that there 
> should never be any object (e.g., {jIbIv})? Or does it 
> mean that you can decide whether to have an object?

In general, the parenthetical remarks refine the meaning of the given
English definition. In a few cases, like <bIv> and <ghoS>, they can also
give some guidance about the proper object for the verb. In the case of
<bIv>, it seems fairly clear that we can say <chut vIbIv>. In the case of
<ghel> the "(a question)" seems to limit the object to at most nouns or
phrases representing a question, elminating the person asked as a possible
object. As charghwI' pointed out, it's likely that there are no nouns or
phrases which represent questions, so <ghel> may not be able to take an
object at all.

As far as we know, it is never wrong to use a verb, even a transitive one,
without an object. You can always say <jISop> - "I am eating", or <bIQorgh>
- "you are caring (for someone)". The lack of an object may mean that there
truly is no object, or that the object is unspecified and unimportant to the
sentence. While it's logically impossible to <Qorgh> without any object at
all, it makes perfect sense to talk about <Qorgh> without talking about who,
specifically, is being taken care of.

So you can say either <chut vIbIv> or just plain <jIbIv>.


pagh
Beginners' Grammarian

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