[tlhIngan Hol] Beginner questions - SAO, SAS and pronouns

Luis Chaparro Caballero luis.chaparro at web.de
Mon Sep 28 09:11:41 PDT 2020


Hi SuStel,

thank you very much for your answer. It was really clarifying!

The discussion I was referring to (about droping the pronoung "'e'") is here: http://lists.kli.org/pipermail/tlhingan-hol-kli.org/2017-September/005856.html

But your explanation makes it clear for me.

I still have some questions nonetheless:

> When you explicitly use a pronoun, you're making it clear that that's 
> the pronoun you have in mind, or you're speaking extra-clearly to make 
> sure you've been heard. If I say *HoD Duj vIlegh*/I see the captain's 
> ship/ and then follow it up with *vIghov,* am I saying I recognize the 
> captain or the ship? I can clarify by explicitly using a pronoun: *ghaH 
> vIghov*/I recognize him/her/ or *'oH vIghov*/I recognize it./
> Here the prefix makes the sentence clear. Why do we use "jIH" here if its not for emphasis?

I understand we can use the pronouns in order to make an ambiguous sentence clear. But in TKD we see this example:

yaS vIlegh jIH

Here the prefix makes the sentence clear. Why are we using "jIH"? Is that what you mean when you say "speaking extra-clearly to make sure you've been heard"?

> > 3. And what if the first sentence is intended to be the subject of the second one? paq Daje'pu'. QaQ.
> I would assume that the elided subject of *QaQ* is *paq.* You cannot 
> have a sentence act as subject. This pair of sentences cannot mean /Your 
> buying the book was good./

> Another reason to think that you can't elide *'e'* as object.

So if I want to say something like "It's good that you have bought the book" or "Your buying the book is good" and avoid that people understand "the book is good", then I need a noun, since a sentence cannot be the subject of another sentence, right? So maybe:

paq Daje'pu'. QaQ wanI'vam.

> You're on the right track. I'd probably use *wanI'* for this: *bIlaDtaH. 
> QaQ wanI'vam'e'.*/You are reading. THAT (and not something else) is 
> good./ But these are definitely two separate sentences in Klingon.

And if I want to put emphasis, then I use "-'e'":

paq Daje'pu'. QaQ wanI'vam'e'.

But then I'm not sure if I understand the sentence in "Star Trek Discovery":

tlhIngan maH. taHjaj.

Isn't the subject of "taHjaj" the sentence "tlhIngan maH"? Something like: "It may endure, that we are Klingons", or "Our being Klingons may endure"? What is otherwise the subject of "taHjaj"? Shouldn't we use here some sort of noun, like in "paq Daje'pu'. QaQ wanI'vam." I'm probably missing something important, sorry!



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