[tlhIngan Hol] What is a sentence?

[ghunchu'wI' 'utlh]

On Jun 9, 2017, at 3:03 PM, SuStel <sustel at trimboli.name> wrote:
> 
> For instance, Captain Klaa's utterance reH DIvI' Duj vISuv vIneH I've always wanted to fight a Federation ship becomes perfectly reasonable without any special grammatical exceptions if we simply look at it as reH [DIvI' Duj vISuv vIneH], where the brackets delineate a sentence, not just a "construction."

It is already an exception, as {neH} does not use the object {'e'}. It has occasionally been suggested that the "previous sentence" is the actual object of {neH}. I think that is no more of a stretch than what you propose.

I do see the distinction between generalizing and making exceptions. I'm just not sure it is worth generalizing "all SAO constructions are sentences" in order to handle the Klaa example, when a small codicil on {neH} works to explain both the placement of {reH} and the lack of {'e'}.


I think it is uncontroversial to call complex sentences made with conjunctions "sentences". Do we have any examples of such sentences where an adverbial or subordinate clause applies to the entire thing, or do they attach to only one main verb? The comparison isn't perfectly applicable to a SAO, but it could be instructive.

-- ghunchu'wI'
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