tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon May 19 16:14:30 2003
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: Adjectives In Noun-Noun Constructs
"...Paul" <[email protected]> wrote:
>Can you place adjectives inside a noun-noun construction? For example,
>/yejHaD quv De'wI'/ "the computers of the honored institute"?
I might be wrong, but I'm sure one can do this.
>The relevant piece of the TKD says:
>"Some combinations of two (or more) nouns in a row are so common as to
>have become everyday words. These are the compound nouns (as discussed in
>section 3.2.1).
Okay, let's see tat section 3.2.1. about Compound nouns:
Compound nouns consist of two or three nouns in a row, much like English "earthworm" ("earth" plus "worm") or "password"
("pass" plus "word"). For example, {jolpa'} "transportroom" consists of {jol} "transport beam" plus {pa'} "room."
Okay, (just to make sure), we are not talking about "compound nouns" here, but "noun-noun" constructions.
>In addition, it is possible to combine nouns in the
>matter of a compound noun to produce a new construct even if it is not a
>legitimate compound noun ("legitimate" in the sense that it would be found
>in a dictionary)."
The following lines:
<<<<<<<<
The translation of two nouns combined in this way, say N1-N2 (that is, noun #1 followed by noun #2), would be "N2 of the N1."
For example, {nuH} "weapon" and {pegh} "secret" combine to form {nuH pegh} "secret of the weapon." An alternate translation
would be "Nl's N2," in this case, "the weapon's secret." As discussed in section 3.3.4, this is the Klingon possessive construction for a
noun possessed by another noun.
When the noun-noun construction is used, only the second noun can take syntactic suffixes (Type 5). Both nouns, however, may
take suffixes of the other four types.
>>>>>>>>
>The two sides we came up with were:
>
>a) No, the TKD specifically states "two nouns in a row", and putting an
>adjective in the middle would break that sequence.
That's right. But does it say anything about adjectives?
>b) Yes, there are many times where the word "noun" in the TKD refers to a
>noun or "noun phrase", which would allow for the first noun to be a noun
>phrase composed of a noun and an adjective.
Yeah, that's my opinion.
It's a possession, "A's B" or "the B of the A", where it doesn't matter what the noun phrase is.
The {yejHaD quv}'s {De'wI'}
or
The {De'wI'} of the {yejHaD quv}
Why not?
{yejHaD De'wI'}.
>Comments? Are there any canon examples of the latter argument?
I couldn't find any.
Quvar.