tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jul 31 12:26:41 2001
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: Questions
- From: Marc Ruehlaender <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Questions
- Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 11:25:37 CDT
- In-reply-to: Your message of Tue, 31 Jul 2001 12:12:00 -0400
I said that {majatlh nuvpu'} sounds like "People, we speak" to me...
DujHoD replied:
> I would consider this to be an instance of ambiguity. This can be true of any
> subject, not just a first-person subject. For example, {jatlh nuvpu'} could
> mean any of the following:
>
> - The people are speaking.
> - People, he/she/they is/are speaking.
> - He/she/they said, {nuvpu'.}
>
I agree up to here.
> This is an accepted element of the language. I don't think {majatlh nuvpu'}
> is any different from {jatlh nuvpu'}.
>
there *is* a difference, in that in the first example the word {nuvpu'}
does not agree with the subject - indicated by the verb prefix {ma-} -
whereas it appears to agree in the second example. The pressure to
reinterpret the role of {nuvpu'} as something other than subject is thus
greater in the first example than the second.
if one would transform {nuv maH} into a relative clause and insert it
as a subject, I'd use a third-person prefix rather than a first person one:
?luSov nuv maHbogh. "The people that we are know this."
*wISov nuv maHbogh.
Idunno
Marc Ruehlaender
aka HomDoq
[email protected]