[tlhIngan Hol] Noun-noun constructions with relative clauses

Will Martin willmartin2 at mac.com
Mon Nov 1 17:19:02 PDT 2021


For that matter, it could mean “The probe which finds and kills Romulans.”

We have similar ambiguity in English. If we said someone was a “Romulan Killer”, we could either mean he’s a person who kills Romulans, or that it is a he’s a Romulan who kills. Context fixes the ambiguity in either Language.

> On Nov 1, 2021, at 5:15 PM, luis.chaparro at web.de wrote:
> 
>>>> By the way, I know there are canonical examples of noun-noun constructions with noun + adjectival verb, but are there any canonical examples with a noun-noun construction containing a noun + relative clause?
>>> Yes.
>>> romuluSngan Sambogh 'ej HoHbogh nejwI' Romulan hunter-killer probe (STK)
>>> There are undoubtedly others.
> 
>> That's a really good example. Thanks again!
> 
> Thinking about that example it just ocurred to me that such a structure could actually be ambiguous. I know it doesn't make much sense, but it *could* also mean *The probe of the Romulan who she / he will find and kill* or *The probe of the Romulans she / he / they will find and kill*. In phrases with this or similar structure, context or, if necessary, rephrasing would clarify which meaning is intended, am I right?
> _______________________________________________
> tlhIngan-Hol mailing list
> tlhIngan-Hol at lists.kli.org
> http://lists.kli.org/listinfo.cgi/tlhingan-hol-kli.org




More information about the tlhIngan-Hol mailing list