[tlhIngan Hol] {-vaD} "for the benefit of"

[Will Martin]

I believe that the consensus formed over time that {-vaD} refers to both entities that are common-sense beneficiaries and grammatical beneficiaries, A.K.A indirect objects.

This is similar to the way that {-‘e’} marks either focus or topic. You can either use a noun with {-‘e’} at the beginning of a sentence that has no other grammatical function in the sentence — it’s not the location or time stamp or direct object — and it announces the topic of the sentence; something you keep in mind while you read the sentence; a kind of restriction of context to this topic, or you can take a noun that already has another grammatical function in the sentence (like the subject or object of a Relative Clause, or the traditional “subject” position of a “to be” pronoun-used-as-verb) and it functions fine for focus. That’s why it can disambiguate a Relative Clause, even though that is not something the suffix may have originally been designed to handle.

I may have just used the wrong term. I think there’s a third term that is sometimes used in the latter case…

In any case, the point is that there are areas of Klingon grammar, like the use of {-vaD} or {-‘e’} that lack distinctions between cases that are commonly distinguished from one another by linguists analyzing the grammar of other languages.

> On Nov 2, 2021, at 9:18 AM, Lieven L. Litaer <levinius at gmx.de> wrote:
> 
> Am 02.11.2021 um 14:13 schrieb SuStel:
>> And in that quotation is a definition of the word. A beneficiary is a
>> person or thing that receives a benefit.
> 
> I believe I understand how it works, so this is a more general question
> for lurkers on this list:
> 
> Would this following make sense:
> 
>  {SoSvaD loD qIp SuvwI'}
>  "The warrior beats the man for the woman"
> 
> Means: The woman is the person for whom the activity occurs. The warrior
> beats the man, and the woman has the profit/benefit of it.
> 
> Right?
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Lieven L. Litaer
> aka the "Klingon Teacher from Germany"
> http://www.tlhInganHol.com
> http://klingon.wiki/En/AliceInWonderland
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