tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Nov 25 13:36:47 2009

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Re: The topic marker -'e'

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

Christopher Doty wrote:
> Huh...  It's not a N-N construction, though; the <yIHHomvaD> and the
> <may'> aren't in a N-N phrase?

But that's how you've used it. The first noun modifies the meaning of 
the second noun. What kind of {may'} "battle" is it? It's a *{yIHHomvaD 
may'} "minor tribble battle." That's the use of the noun–noun 
construction, but the first noun isn't allowed a Type 5 suffix. 
Beneficiaries (and locatives, etc.) only modify verbs.

Now, there *are* a couple of phrases on the Bird of Prey poster which do 
this, and I'm not surprised, given that it started as a list of English 
noun phrases to be translated. (I have no doubt that Okrand fell into 
the same trap you did.)

-- 
SuStel
tlhIngan Hol MUSH
http://trimboli.name/mush

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