[tlhIngan-Hol] Sentence as subject

[Alan Anderson]

On Fri, Jun 3, 2016 at 11:28 AM, mayqel qunenoS <mihkoun at gmail.com> wrote:
> I remember reading somewhere (I think in the wiki), that sentence as
> subject is not allowed.
>
> However, I can't understand how someone can use a sentence as subject
> in the first place.
>
> Can someone write an example of a sentence as subject, so that I will
> understand, what someone is supposed to avoid ?

---> It is normal that we can write such an English sentence.

The verb is "be normal".
The subject is "it", which is a cataphoric stand-in for the sentence
which follows the verb.

In Klingon grammar, some people try to write sentences like this, with
the pronoun {'e'} in the object spot for a verb that doesn't usually
make sense with an object. That looks right after being translated
into English, but the grammar is not supported in Klingon. We can
rephrase the English thus:

---> That we can write such an English sentence is normal.

Translating this directly into Klingon would end up with {'e'} in the
subject spot, and {'e'} is only ever an object.

For example, if you want to ask "Is it important that I understand
this idea?", do NOT translate it as {*potlh'a' 'e' qechvam vIyaj}.
Rephrase it to get rid of what looks like a sentence as object,
because it is actually a sentence as subject, and Klingon has no
straightforward tool for doing that.

-- ghunchu'wI'