tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Mar 29 23:08:25 2004
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Re: it; SIS
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>
> From: <[email protected]>
> > the way i think of "it" in sentences like these is that it is (!)
> > strictly a dummy subject for the verb when it would otherwise
> > have none. it has no reference at all, and doesn't mean
> > anything. it's role is strictly to fill the required grammar
> > slot of subject. klingon doesn't do this, of course, since its
> > verbs do not require explicit subjects. the subject of "SIS"
> > (the sky?) may be so self-evident that it is unnecessary in
> > ordinary use.
>
> If it's so self-evident, then what is it? :)
Precisely! Is it really self evident? Isn't this one of the reasons
this subject crops up from time to time.
People say things here like the sky rains, the cloud rains/the
clouds rain, the weather is raining etc.
However in English the answer of "It's raining" is often in reply
to the question (voiced or not) "What is the weather".
That of course is just English but I thought it worth mentioning...
To be honest to that question I don't think I've ever looked into the sky
and said it's raining. Mostly I look at the ground to see the evidence and
help answer if it's just started or not.. I may look in the sky before it
rains though.. In which case I'm looking specifically at the clouds to see
whether they look like they will rain... Again if I do look at the sky while
it is raining it would be to see the location of the cloud that is raining
relative to me to predict how long it will last. Taking another slant on
this, we might look up at the sky but what does a weather satellite look at?
It looks down at the Earth. In both cases it is the clouds that are
examined.
qe'San
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