tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Aug 27 10:43:33 2004

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Re: {'Iv}

Steven Boozer ([email protected]) [KLI Member] 

Voragh:
> > I think the best way to understand questions like {yIH nuq?} or {nuq
> > mI'lIj, tera'ngan?} (CK) are as verbless questions.  You don't need a verb
> > to ask a question.  This is not as strange as it seems.  For example,
> > Russian has no "to be" verb in the present tense.  E.g.

lay'SIv:
>But we're not talking about Russian.  In this context what Russian (or any
>other language) is irrelevant.  The question is:  Can Klingon have verbless
>sentences?  My limited experience tells me "no".

And my experience tells me "yes":  the so-called "pronoun-as-verb" 
sentence.  My point was that it's a matter of terminology. Note that 
"pronoun-as-verb" is our term, not Okrand's.  Cf. TKD (p.69f.):

   There is no verb corresponding to English "to be" in Klingon. On the
   other hand, all pronouns (section 5.1) can be used as verbs, in the
   sense of "I am", "you are", etc. ...

N.B. "can be used as verbs, in the sense of 'I am', 'you are', etc." NOT 
"are verbs..."  This description exactly matches how Russian verbless 
sentences with pronouns work in the present tense:

    *Kto vy?*          "Who [are] you?"
    *Vy amerikanets."  "You [are an] American (male)."
    *On klingonets."   "He [is a] Klingon (male)."
    *Ona studentka."   "She [is a] student (female)."

Pronouns can act as copulas in "to be" sentences since Klingon, like 
Russian (in the present tense) lacks a "to be" verb.  Although most Russian 
grammarians would say that the verb has simply been omitted in these 
sentences, you could also say that Russian pronouns "can be used as verbs, 
in the sense of 'I am', 'you are', etc."  Again, it's a only matter of 
terminology; it's merely one of several ways of describing what you're hearing.

Back to Okrand:

   When there is a definite subject, it follows the pronoun and takes
   the {-'e'} "topic" suffix.
      puqpu' chaH qama'pu''e'
      The prisoners are children.
      (As for the prisoners, they are children.)

This use of a pronoun as a copula parallels Hebrew (and Arabic):

    *ha-ish ha-zeh hu amerika'i.*
    This man he [is an] American. (As for this man, he's an American.)

Klingon pronouns are not verbs - e.g. they don't take either set of verb 
prefixes - they only have *some* verb-like aspects to them in "to be" 
sentences.  By observation we've seen that Klingon pronouns in this type of 
sentence can also take some verb suffixes.  Can they take all of the 
suffixes?  (Probably, but we don't know that for certain.)

In fact, that was what started this discussion:  I was wondering whether 
you can put the Type 9 suffix {-chugh} on a pronoun-as-verb.



-- 
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons

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