tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Oct 05 18:05:58 2002

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Re: The ol' transitivity thing again



ja' SuStel:
>>>I don't think the choice of transitivity is inherent in the word.
>...There may very
>well be a specific word that has a specific set of allowed usages, but these
>usages only apply to that particular word.

I'm not following you.  It still sounds like you're saying two
contradictory things.

1. Transitivity isn't inherent in the word.
2. Transitivity usage is specific to each particular word.

I'm not disagreeing with what you're saying...but that's partly because I
don't understand what you're saying.  It's also partly because I don't care
a lot about the topic itself. :-)

>Basically, I'm calling into question the practice of saying such-and-such
>verb "is transitive" or "is intransitive."  We can see whether a given verb
>is "used transitively" or not, but something makes me feel that the concept
>of transitivity in Klingon is less clear-cut than a simple label.

I don't get the distinction you're making between "is transitive" and "is
used transitively".  But it makes little difference to me, as I'm confident
in my ability to communicate effectively even without understanding what
you're trying to say.

-- ghunchu'wI'


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