[tlhIngan Hol] inherently plural nouns when they are implied

[Will Martin]

Agreed. The noun implies the specific entity that is subject or object. The pronoun strips away everything except the person, number, and yes/no status as a being capable of language. The prefix reduces that information to just the person and number, and in some cases is ambiguous even concerning that limited information. There is no information in the grammatical link between the noun and prefix that is lacking from the pronoun, so there is no way to tell if the elided word implied by the prefix was a noun or a pronoun. It’s completely irrelevant.

The same rule for choosing the correct prefix to represent the noun applies to choosing the correct pronoun to represent the noun, though the set of pronouns available is larger than the set of prefixes since the pronouns have to represent the additional information of the yes/no status of ability to use language.

pItlh

charghwI’ ‘utlh
(ghaH, ghaH, -Daj)




> On Jun 1, 2022, at 12:46 PM, De'vID <de.vid.jonpin at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, 1 Jun 2022 at 16:55, D qunen'oS <mihkoun at gmail.com <mailto:mihkoun at gmail.com>> wrote:
> SuStel:
> > You can substitute pronouns for nouns, and you can elide pronouns
> 
> I wasn't aware of that. I thought that the thing elided was decided by context. So, just to see if I understand this correctly:
> 
> nIHIvpu' Ha'DIbaH; DaqaDpu'mo', nIHIvpu'.
> the animals attacked you; because you provoked them they attacked you.
> 
> If I understand correctly, the elided subject of {nIHIvpu'} is they/chaH, and *not* {Ha'DIbaHmey}, right?
> 
> Unless these animals are beings who can use language, the elided pronoun is {bIH}. 
> 
> See TKD section 6.2.1 on compound sentences. Even though that section is talking about two sentences joined with a conjunction, it's equally applicable to multiple sentences. 
> <When the subject of both of the joined sentences is the same, the English translation may be reduced to a less choppy form, but Klingon does not allow this shortening. The pronominal prefix must be used with both verbs. [...] When a noun (as opposed to simply a verbal prefix) indicates subject and/or object, there are some options in Klingon. In its fullest form, a Klingon sentence repeats the noun [...] It is possible, however, to use pronouns rather than nouns in the second of the joined sentences. [...] If the context is clear, even the pronoun may be left out.>
> 
> So "by the book", you're first replacing the noun with a pronoun, and then eliding the pronoun. But it's splitting hairs to insist that this isn't the same as just eliding the noun.
> 
> -- 
> De'vID
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