[tlhIngan Hol] Verbs of measure

nIqolay Q niqolay0 at gmail.com
Wed Mar 27 10:43:03 PDT 2019


On Wed, Mar 27, 2019 at 1:07 PM Will Martin <willmartin2 at mac.com> wrote:

> I mean, if you can just imagine a pronoun that can act as subject of the
> second sentence and represent the first sentence, why not just imagine a
> pronoun acting as object of the second sentence that represents the first
> sentence? Poof! No need for {‘e’} or {net}. Any sentence can just be
> invisibly represented by any unstated pronoun acting as subject or object
> in the following sentence.
>

You can already do that. For example,
TKD: *vIta'pu'be'.* *I didn't do it.*

There's also this dialogue from ST6:
https://www.kli.org/tlhIngan-Hol/2006/May/msg00201.html


> Chang:   narghta'?  narghta'.
>              ([They have] Escaped.)
> Grokh:   qay'be'. Daq SovlaHbe'taH qIrq.
>              (Kirk cannot know the location of the peace conference.)
>              {It does not matter ... Kirk cannot know the location.}
> Chang:   DaSovbej'a'?  bISuDrup'a'?
>              (Are you sure? Will you take that chance?)
>              {Are you sure [of that]? ... Are you willing to take that
>               chance?}
>

*DaSovbej'a' *has an unstated pronoun as object, referring to Grokh's
sentence. (Grokh's sentence also uses *qay'be'*, with an unstated subject
referring to Chang's earlier statement that Kirk and Spock had escaped.)
Leaving out *'e'* might cause confusion if there's something else in the
context that might also work as a third-person subject, and the two
sentences may feel less connected into a single thought, but it's not the
end of the world if you leave it out.

So, I repeat, it is not ungrammatical. It is merely hideous. You can’t rely
> on your reader/listener to consistently realize, “OH, I GET IT. THAT
> UNSTATED SUBJECT OF THE SECOND VERB REPRESTENTS THE ENTIRE PREVIOUS
> SENTENCE. WHAT A GREAT IDEA? WHY DIDN’T OKRAND THINK OF THAT?
>

He did think of that, at least four times. I mentioned them in my earlier
posts. I assume the reason he did not spell this out formally is because he
didn't think he needed to explain to his audience how to use "it".
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