tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Dec 19 19:06:29 2007

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Re: jIHtaHbogh naDev vISovbe'

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



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





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