tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Dec 18 19:31:12 2007

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Re: jIHtaHbogh naDev vISovbe'

David Trimboli ([email protected]) [KLI Member] [Hol po'wI']

Alan Anderson wrote:
> ja' mI'qey:
> 
>> +++
>> predicative:  (grammar) An element of the predicate of
>> a sentence which supplements the subject or object by
>> means of the verb. Predicatives may be nominal or
>> adjectival. A nominal predicative is a noun or pronoun
>> that follows a linking verb and renames the subject.
>> +++
>>
>> If we want to be precise, we're talking only about
>> nominal predicatives, but since adjectives don't
>> appear in pronoun-as-verb clauses, the distinction
>> hardly seems worth insisting on.
>>
>> How does this strike people?
> 
> I think that it comes close, but it's not quite complete enough to be  
> a good word for what we've been talking about.  There are two  
> apparently distinct kinds of "to be" constructions in Klingon, and  
> only one of them fits the "predicative" idea.  The other kind has a  
> locative idea, which is neither nominal nor adjectival.

The Klingon grammar *I* described has only one kind of copula. Whether 
the predicative (I'm going to use the word) has a locative sense or not 
is irrelevant. The Klingon idea isn't identical to the English meaning, 
but the word is a good one.

Wikipedia's article on adjectival or nominal predicatives 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predicative_%28adjectival_or_nominal%29) 
gives a few samples. Only one is relevant:

    Bob is a *postman*.
    QIn HIjwI' ghaH Bob'e'

{QIn HIjwI'} "message deliverer" (postman) is the (nominal) predicative. 
It's a noun (phrase) that complements the "verb" (pronoun).

In the sentence

    pa'DajDaq ghaH HoD'e'
    The captain is in his quarters

what English has as a preposition Klingon has, in my analysis, a nominal 
predicative. As before, it's a noun that complements the pronoun. {HoD} 
is not used as the predicative here because {pa'DajDaq} is. This is why 
it's not *{pa'DajDaq HoD ghaH}.

Whether the predicative is a locative or not is irrelevant to the 
analysis of the grammar. All copulas can be described as

    <predicative> <pronoun> [topic]'e'

SuStel
Stardate 7964.8

-- 
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