Re: jI-x-ghach? (was Re: tlhIngan Hol lujatlhbogh puq'e')

[Teresh000@aol.com]

ghItlh ghunchu'wI':

> I'm having a very hard time making {-ghach} work with a prefixed verb.  I
> can puzzle out the intent behind it, though it sounds like it suffers from
> a major incompatibility.  {-wI'} and {-ghach} nominalize verbs, but a verb
> with a prefix is a *sentence*.  If you want to use a whole 
> sentence as a
> noun, the pronouns {'e'} and {net} are there for you.

But only for sentences as the _object_ of a verb.  For Sentence as Subject,
MO has elsewhere proposed using {-meH} phrases with a "placeholder" noun
acting as the actual subject, ex. {nargh qaSuchmeH 'eb} "The chance to see you
has disappeared". {qaSuchmeH 'eb} "the I-visit-you opportunity" is a noun phrase, 
the subject of {nargh}.

As SuStel noted in a follow=up, MO doesn't entirely condemn the prefix-V-ghach
construction, but implies that it is extremely unusual. I would use it, if ever,
just for its effect (humorous, ironic, for emphasis, etc.), but not as a normal
part of my usual conversation or writing.  I think of things like this like
a spice: a little bit can spark things up but too much can make things indigestible.

-- ter'eS

http://www.geocities.com/teresh_2000
http://www.geocities.com/weseb_2000