tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Sep 17 07:23:30 2007

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Re: Positioning for emphasis

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



RE: {HaqwI''e' DaH yISam} as a case of object-moving rather than 
adverbial-moving

QeS 'utlh wrote:
> Out of interest, what are people's views on said proposal (forgetting 
> subject-fronting for a moment)? If there's counter-canon, or if people 
> disagree, I'd like to hear thoughts.

I happen to agree completely, and what ghunchu'wI' finds surprising I 
find obvious — I've been thinking about it that way for years.

My current view of Klingon grammar is that its syntax is extremely 
fluid, and that what TKD calls syntactic markers are better described as 
semantic markers. The header is simply the dumping ground for everything 
that doesn't fit into the otherwise rigid syntactic structure. The word 
must have semantic meaning when it's in the header in order for it to be 
useful. If it has an inherent time-meaning then it functions as a 
timestamp, and is usually placed at the beginning of the header. If it's 
an adverbial then its meaning is inherent and modifies the verb. If it 
has a Type 5 noun suffix on it its meaning is explicitly marked.

Without some kind of semantic meaning it is unlikely that a word or 
phrase would end up in the header — you wouldn't know what it was doing 
in the sentence.

I also believe that a word's semantic meaning has little or no bearing 
on its syntactic placement — I see no problem with putting timestamps or 
locatives in, say, the subject position, provided it makes semantic sense.

So I see {HaqwI''e' DaH yISam} exactly as you have described it: "As for 
the surgeon, find him now!" It could be rewritten thus:
{HaqwI''e' DaH ghaH yISam}. Heck, you could even write:
{HaqwI''e' DaH HaqwI''e' yISam}. Redundant, but grammatical.

You could NOT use *{HaqwI' DaH yISam} because {HaqwI'} is a header with 
no indication of its semantic role.

SuStel
Stardate 7711.4






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