[tlhIngan Hol] jIHtaHbogh naDev vISovbe'

[Alan Anderson]

If I assume that both {jIHtaHbogh naDev vISovbe'} and {DaH naDev jIHtaHbogh
meq Saja'} are examples of correct Klingon grammar, I can propose a simple
analysis that explains them. It also points to a way to include the meaning
of one of the English phrases presented in TKD as an example of a relative
clause ("the restaurant where we ate").

I just have to shrug off one of Marc Okrand's comments in an interview
about relative clauses, where he said he couldn't make them work with
anything other than the subject or object as the head noun. He implies that
translations of Klingon relative clauses include "that", "which", or "who".
If I instead find that he *did* make a relative "where" work as the head
noun in the {...vISovbe'} sentence, and that he made a relative "why" work
in the {...Saja'} sentence, then there is only one rule from TKD that needs
to be addressed. We're told that the head of the relative clause is placed
based on its role in the clause. The tweak is to say that a head that is
neither the subject nor the object of the clause comes at the end of the
clause, after the OSV portion.

It might turn out that the relative clause acts as the first noun in a N-N
construction, and the second noun isn't exactly its head, but it's the
second noun that fills the role in the outer sentence that the head of the
relative usually takes. Treating it that way, strictly literal translations
of the two examples could be proposed:

  "I do not know the here of which I am being."
  "I will tell you the reason of which I am being here."

Substituting "here where" and "reason why" for the "X of which" gives
reasonable-sounding translations.

If we only had the original example from TKD, it would be unrealistic to
use it as support for a complete theory of non-subject, non-object relative
clause heads. But the second example from the paq'batlh aligns with it, and
I consider that sufficient.

-- ghunchu'wI'
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