[tlhIngan Hol] Hoch, {-pu'}/{-mey}, the indefinite, and cats

[SuStel]

On 5/17/2019 2:00 PM, Alan Anderson wrote:
> On May 17, 2019, at 1:33 PM, mayqel qunen'oS <mihkoun at gmail.com 
> <mailto:mihkoun at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>> And (the subject of this thread), in order to say "someone sees all 
>> cats", we *have* to place the {-mey} on the noun after the {Hoch}, 
>> thus writing {Hoch vIghro'mey luleghlu'}.
>
> In my internalized model of how {Hoch X} works, the alternative {Hoch 
> vIghro' luleghlu'} violates a kind of {rom}. The plural indication of 
> the verb prefix isn’t strong enough to coerce {Hoch vIghro'} into 
> meaning {Hoch vIghro'mey}.

I see the prefix as entirely passive. It agrees with the subject and 
some object, whether or not those subjects or objects are present in the 
sentence. The prefix never enforces person or number on its own.

This is why it drives me nuts when people say things like *maghom Hoch* 
for /We all meet./ The prefix doesn't force *Hoch* to become 
first-person plural.*Hoch* is third-person singular and the prefix has 
no choice but to agree with it.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name

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