tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Apr 15 11:15:02 2002
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Re: middle voice
jatlh Sean Healy:
> Basically, my point is, with transitive (or 'accusative', as I would guess
> the opposite of 'unaccusative' to be) verbs, there is always a
> subject/object dualism, whether the subject is expressed or not. The
> meaning of the verb demands it. The difference seems to be that we have a
> way to avoid explicitly mentioning the subject in English, whereas in
> Klingon, we have to indicate morphemically that the subject is unknown.
There is one known possible exception to this. We've often debated the
correct usage of verbs indicating weather conditions: SIS, jev, peD, maybe
one or two more I haven't thought of offhand. What's the correct subject of
these verbs?
Okrand, obviously in response to having heard about these debates, was
reported by a list member to have looked up on a rainy day and announce,
/SIS!/
Based upon this, it would seem that when using these verbs, no subject is
used. This is just a guess based on flimsy evidence, but I don't see any
reason not to accept it (there's no better evidence anywhere). I would also
guess that they don't take objects either, making the use of these verbs
nearly restricted to exclamations. (I'm sure, though, that you could add
them to more complex structures, e.g., /SIS 'e' vIpar/ "I don't like the
rain.")
SuStel
Stardate 2287.8