tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jul 07 16:29:34 2000
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: KLBC: -law'
jIja'pu':
>However, {DaSovbej'a'} is a line from ST:VI, subtitled "Are you sure?"
>Perhaps it's the interrogative that transfers the qualification from the
>speaker to the answerer, or perhaps Type 6 verb suffixes are just not quite
>as clear-cut as TKD makes them out to be in the first place.
ja' SuStel:
>I'd agree with this, with the exception that I think that GENERALLY the Type
>6 suffixes are clear-cut. There is only one example of /-law'/ and one
>example of /-bej/ in which the suffix indicates something other than the
>level of certainty of the speaker that I know of. Not much to bet on.
Immediately after the {DaSovbej'a'} comes {bISuDrup'a'}, intended as "Are
you prepared to take that chance?" Again, something lets {-rup}, a
nominally subject-applicable suffix, connect to the object instead. I can
follow the logic of {-'a'} being that something.
>Another likely possibility is that these usages are exceptions to a
>generally true rule, rather than general expansions of the meanings of these
>suffixes.
It looks like {-'a'} might have a consistent effect, so if it's an
exception, it's probably a predictable one. :-)
-- ghunchu'wI' 'utlh