tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Jan 27 10:23:26 2002
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Re: 'e' with a to be verb
ja' qurgh:
>Person 1: loS ben USADaq jIpaw ( I arrived in the USA 4 years ago)
>Person 2: 'e' nI'qu' vIQub ( I think that's a very long time)
nI'qu' 'e' vIQub. "I think that it is a very long time."
>Person 1: may'Daq jIHeghbe' ( I didn't die in the battle)
>Person 2: 'e' QaQ vISov ( I know that's good)
QaQ 'e' vISov. "I know that it is good."
In phrases like these, you can get away with leaving unstated the subject
of the verb of quality. One of the first few sentences presented in TKD is
{Do'Ha'} "That is unfortunate." If there were to be an explicit subject,
it would most likely be {ghu'}, but in ST3 it was *really* in reference to
an earlier action rather than just a situation. "It is unfortuate that you
have seen it." We don't have the grammar in tlhIngan Hol to translate that
directly, so we just us a vague "it" as the subject of the verb of quality,
leaving a hole in the sentence where a theoretical "sentence as subject"
pronoun might go.
Or we get specific and say something like this:
nI'qu' loS DIS 'e' vIQub. "I think that four years is a very long time."
QaQ yIntaHghach 'e' vISov. "I know that continuing to live is good."
-- ghunchu'wI' 'utlh