tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jan 16 21:56:25 2001

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RE: -vo'




SarrIS:
> pa'vo' pagh leghlu'.
> 
> "The room has no view."
> 
> More literally, "One sees nothing FROM the room."
> 
> There appears to be evidence that, at least for the single verb {legh},
> there is one example in canon saying that the viewing occurs FROM {-vo} the
> position of the viewer. There appears to be no evidence that viewing occurs
> from {-vo'} the thing being viewed, regardless of which way light or other
> information is flowing.

It's interesting how {-vo'} is used to disambiguate in this case.
If it had been {pa'*Daq* pagh leghlu'}, it would have meant that nothing
was *in* the room to see.  {-vo'} with {legh} seems to indicate that
the object being seen is at a different location than the viewer.

That raises an interesting point.  If I was *in* the room, and I said
{pa'Daq pagh leghlu'}, it's obvious that I mean that there's nothing
to see in the room.  But what if I am *outside* the room?  If I said
{pa'Daq pagh leghlu'}, would that mean that (from the outside) there's
nothing in the room to see?  

Going to the other example, {naDevvo' jIleghlaHchu'be'}, it seems
to mean that the tourist can't see something else (that is elsewhere)
very well from where she was standing.  If she had said {naDev
jIleghlaHchu'be'} (since there's no {-Daq} on {naDev}) it would
have meant that she couldn't see clearly where she was, i.e.
she couldn't see her immediate surroundings.

This seems to suggest that {-vo'} marks the location of the 
subject (viewer) and {-Daq} marks the object (viewee):

{HurDaq Qanqor vIlegh} "I see Krankor on the outside", i.e. "I see 
Krankor and he's outside (I'm probably outside too unless context 
indicates otherwise)"

vs.

{Hurvo' Qanqor vIlegh} "I see Krankor from the outside", i.e. "I see 
Krankor and I'm outside (Krankor may or may not be outside)"

Going back to the original example you raised,

SarrIS (from a while ago):
> Qe' Hurvo' Qe'Daq Qanqor vIlegh. "I was outside the restaurant and 
> I saw Krankor in the restaurant."

The canon seems to support this interpretation.  While it's not
a definite resolution, I think your interpretation has a very good 
case.

--
De'vID

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