tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue May 09 08:05:56 2006
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Re: Questions in tlhIngan syntax (I)
Voragh:
> >Another way to think of it with these sentences is to see the SAO as a
> >statement of fact ("I saw the officer hit him/her") and the relative clause
> >as a follow-on comment or description about the officer. E.g.:
> >
> > qIppu' yaS 'e' vIlegh
> > I saw the officer hit him/her.
> > ("The officer has hit him/her. I saw that."
> >
> > qIppu'bogh yaS vIlegh
> > I saw the officer who-has-hit-him/her.
Jesse:
>So (in a quick follow up question) this true complete sentence can now be
>connected to another sentence per SAO rules as in...
>
> qIppu'bogh yaS vIlegh 'e' luSov
> They know I saw the officer who hit him/her.
Exactly right.
Now that you understand how relative clauses work, here's how to use them
with a bit more finesse. You may have noticed that {qama' qIppu'bogh yaS}
is ambiguous: "the officer who hit the prisoner" or "the prisoner whom the
officer hit". To make clear which noun you're talking about, tag it with
the topic suffix {-'e'}:
qama' qIppu'bogh yaS'e' vIlegh 'e' luSov
They know I saw the officer who hit the prisoner.
qama''e' qIppu'bogh yaS vIlegh 'e' luSov
They know I saw the prisoner whom the officer hit.
Note: This method is not required by the grammar - usually the context is
clear - but it is a useful stylistic device that we've developed over the
years. IIRC Okrand liked it when someone showed it to him.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons