tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jun 13 08:21:46 2002

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Re: subjectless verbs (was: matlhHa'ghach)

ja' 'ISqu':

  > The highlighted verbs {Qatlhpu'} and {ngeD} lack explicit
  > subjects, as is often the case with {SIS} ?what other verbs
  > can be used without overt subjects? {DuH}? {qIt}?


  jang Andrew Strader. ja':

  > You better read your TKD. There's nothing special about verbs
  > lacking an explicit subject in Klingon. It happens all the time.
  > "Qong" is a complete sentence. You may wish to consider Qatlh
  > in my above sentence as having an implicit Qu' or mIw as subject.


  What 'ISqu' seems to be exploring here is the frontier zone between
  implicit and indefinite subjects. Sure, if you knock yourself out, you
  can always come up with an explicit subject for sentences like {qay'be'
  (ghu'?)} or {SIS ('eng?)}, but the same could be said for verbs with
  {-lu'}. Does that make {-lu'} expendable? Or does {-lu'} refer to a
  subject that is relatively vaguer or more generalized? I noticed the
  phrase {merlu''a'?} in a recent exchange on the list. As the reference
  was to a specific prior statement, would {mer'a'} have been better? Or
  perhaps 'ISqu' was on the right track from the start: no rule, just a
  group of verbs, similar to {qay'be'}, that are used idiomatically in this
  manner. All we need is the list from Maltz.

  qa'ral

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