tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Sep 15 08:46:23 2007

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Re: Positioning for emphasis

Alan Anderson ([email protected]) [KLI Member] [Hol po'wI']

ja' QeS 'utlh:

> How would you go about translating {puq'e' yaS qIp ghaH}, then?

I'd translate it as "It is the child's officer he hits," and I'd note  
that it is not grammatically proper Klingon.

> I can't make
> any sense of it unless {ghaH} and {puq'e'} refer to the same thing.

And I can't make any sense of it unless {puq'e' yaS} is breaking the  
rules to emphasize the first noun of a noun-noun (possessive/ 
genitive) construction.  I see both interpretations as ungrammatical,  
though one is less grammatical than the other.  I see the type-5-on- 
first-noun interpretation as an error with an obvious intended  
meaning, but I don't see the displaced-emphasized-subject  
interpretation as sensible.

In my understanding of Klingon grammar, subjects come at the end of  
the sentence.  The only exception is in a ritual toast, when a verb  
ending in {-jaj} moves to the end.

-- ghunchu'wI'

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