tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jan 30 13:41:26 2003
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Re: 'predicatively'
From: "C. Krottje" <[email protected]>
> In my
> perception, the adjectival verbs don't FULLY behave like
> other verbs and they have some intrinsic copula-something
> about them which would allow them to be in positions other
> verbs wouldn't be in.
Well, from various Okrand sources it seems that there are two kinds of
verbs: verbs of quality, and verbs of action. Exactly which ones are which
isn't always clear. /qIj/ "be black" is a verb of quality; /Qong/ "sleep"
is a verb of action.
Whether something is a verb of quality of a verb of action is important in
at least two ways. First, only verbs of quality may be used adjectivally.
You can say /Duj qIj/ "black ship"; you can't say */Duj vIH/ "moving ship."
Second, you have to use verbs of quality in comparative sentences: e.g.,
/Dujvam HoS law' Dujvetlh HoS puS/ "This ship is stronger than that ship."
Then you start to get into the question of verb suffixes. We've only ever
seen rovers on adjectivally-acting verbs. Can they take other suffixes too?
You can say /puq Quch/ "happy child." You apparently can't say */puq
QuchchoH/ "becoming-happy child?" Is /QuchchoH/ a verb of action while
/Quch/ is a verb of quality?
SuStel
Stardate 3082.3