tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jul 03 17:35:14 2000
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Re: Deixis and direction
ja' charghwI':
>I have to respond to this, if for no other reason, to point out that an
>"oblique" noun is simply a noun used for any grammatical function other than
>subject of the verb. SuStel seems to be using it to mean "any noun used for
>some function other than subject or object of the verb", but that would be
>his personal interpretation of the word and not the actual meaning of the
>word in grammatical context.
My dictionary says that the grammatical term "oblique" refers to something
other than nouns in "nominative" or "vocative" cases. A "nominative" noun
is acting as the subject of a sentence; a "vocative" noun is used in direct
address. So, strictly speaking, SuStel *is* using the term in a somewhat
improper sense.
However, I agree with his use completely in this context. The subject and
object of Klingon sentences appear in essentially the same "case", and are
distinguishable only by the position in which they appear. Other nouns
usually get Type 5 suffixes, the equivalent of case markings, and the ones
that don't receive such suffixes are pretty well established as either
exceptions (e.g. {naDev}) or as members of certain sets (e.g. {ben}).
While I rarely like the idea of co-opting existing grammatical terms to
describe Klingon sentences, using the term "oblique noun" to mean "any noun
in a Klingon sentence other than the subject or object" seems entirely
reasonable to me.
-- ghunchu'wI' 'utlh