tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jul 16 20:40:07 2002
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Re: KLBC: (was: RE: "startrek" tlhIngan Quj)
From: "Sangqar (Sean Healy)" <[email protected]>
> >maHvaD napchu' pagh.
>
> This would be a neat extension of the prefix trick. But if I remember
> correctly, the prefix trick requires a third-person direct object.
It does not.
====================
When the indirect object (in this case, the hearer) is first or second
person, the pronominal prefix which normally indicates first or second
person object may be used.
[...]
qajatlh "I speak to you"
Sajatlh "I speak to you [plural]"
chojatlh "you speak to me"
====================================
(from Marc Okrand, post to MSN forum, 6/30/97)
So there are a couple of possibilities here. On the one hand, you might try
to claim that for /maHvaD napchu' pagh/, /maHvaD/ is not an indirect object,
though it is a beneficiary, and therefore does not fall under the prefix
trick. I suspect this is splitting hairs that don't exist in Klingon.
/maHvaD/ is /maHvaD/. A Klingon doesn't stop to decide whether you mean it
as an indirect object or another kind of beneficiary.
Another possibility is that you really can prefix-trick this. */nunapchu'
pagh/. I REALLY don't think this is true.
Finally, and I suspect this is the case, the prefix trick simply doesn't
work with verbs of quality.
This still leaves the question of whether you can say something like
*/qaQong/ "I sleep for you." I don't think that works, either, though it
might be suggestive of the "an indirect object, not just any kind of
beneficiary" argument.
SuStel
Stardate 2540.9