tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Dec 19 19:06:29 2007
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: jIHtaHbogh naDev vISovbe'
Alan Anderson wrote:
> If we haven't gone too far down the path of establishing
> "predicative" as the preferred term, what do you think of
> "complement"? That better approximates what I think you want, as its
> meaning in English grammar includes ideas such as "in the room".
There's no law holding anyone to the terms I choose to use for a
description. We the list aren't obliged to accept one man's terminology,
or even to come up with a consensus. I make no claims to trying to find
the list's "preferred" term.
From what I can see of the term "complement," it's too vague just as
that. "Pronoun complement" would work. Naturally, though, when you know
you're talking about a copula, "complement" would mean only one thing.
But if you think that {pa'Daq} "in the room" doesn't meet the usual
meaning of "predicative," I disagree.
The predicative is 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. If the complement after a linking verb
is a noun or a pronoun, it is called a predicate nominative. If the
complement after a linking verb is an adjective, it is called a
predicate adjective.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predicative_%28adjectival_or_nominal%29
We're using pronouns and topics instead of verbs and subjects and
objects, but otherwise the concept is the same. {pa'Daq} is the
predicate of the sentence (in as much as the Klingon copula sentence has
a predicate), and it supplements the pronoun through its own "verbness."
{ghaH} "He is." In what manner "is" he? {pa'Daq ghaH} "He is, in the
manner of being in the room." "He is in the room."
In English "in the room" cannot be a predicate nominative because it is
a preposition; Klingon doesn't have this issue. What in English must be
expressed with a preposition is expressed in Klingon with a noun, so
different grammar applies. The grammar I've presented describes Klingon
grammar, not the grammar of the English translation applied back to the
Klingon.
SuStel
Stardate 7967.4
--
Practice the Klingon language on the tlhIngan Hol MUSH.
http://trimboli.name/klingon/mush.html