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--></style></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>This has been suggested before, but I think the link between the speech being reported and the topic of the sentence itself is too weak to sustain this argument. Basically, there’s little reason for the listener to expect that the narrator’s topic is the reported speaker’s topic.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>-- <br>SuStel<br>http://trimboli.name</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div style='mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='border:none;padding:0in'><b>From: </b><a href="mailto:bellerophon.modeler@gmail.com">Ed Bailey</a><br><b>Sent: </b>Wednesday, March 22, 2017 9:56 PM<br><b>To: </b><a href="mailto:tlhingan-hol@kli.org">tlhingan-hol@kli.org</a><br><b>Subject: </b>Re: [tlhIngan Hol] mu' chu' chabal tetlh!</p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>On Wed, Mar 22, 2017 at 8:29 PM, Felix Malmenbeck <<a href="mailto:felixm@kth.se" target="_blank">felixm@kth.se</a>> wrote:</p><div><div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p style='background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>- talk about, discuss (verb)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p style='background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>Example sentences:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>(1) "I enjoy talking about Klingon."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>(2) "We spoke about the fact that bicycles are evil."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>(3) "What are y'all talking about?"<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>(4) "I visited the restaurant that you told me about."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>(5) "Why is our CO so unwilling to talk about the space station that our enemies destroyed?"<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>(6) "She refuses to talk about the project she's working on."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>(7) "That blowhard talks about himself too much."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>(8) "Those lovers talk about each other too much."<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></blockquote><div><p class=MsoNormal>I'm not suggesting these are the ideal (or necessarily even acceptable) way to express your sentences, but lately I've been considering how sentences could be made more concise with the topic marker {-'e'}, which seems underused (by humans, anyway). For many situations, it seems like a shorter alternative to tacking {bopbogh...} onto the object of consideration. So can you indicate the topic of conversation this way before an intransitive verb of speech? How do these sentences strike you?</p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> </p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>(1) tlhIngan Hol'e' jIjatlh 'e' vItIv.</p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>(2) mIgh qam Do Dujmey. ngoDvam'e' majatlh.</p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>(3) nuq'e' SujatlhtaH?</p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>(4) Qe'e' choja'ta'bogh vISuchta'.</p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>(5) qatlh tengchaH'e' luSangta'bogh jaghpu'ma' jatlhqangbe'qu' ra'wI'ma'?</p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>(6) jInmol'e' turtaHbogh mujatlhQo'.</p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>(7) tlhoy bop'egh 'eDjenvetlh jatlhtaHvIS.</p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>(8) tlhoy bopchuq parmaqqayvetlh jatlhtaHvIS.</p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>For the last two, due to their reflexive nature, I couldn't see how to use the topic marker without repeating {'eDjen} or {parmaqqay} (though just because of my English sense of style: I seem to recall from TKD something to the effect that such repetition isn't bad style in Klingon). It seems to me that {bop} <be about, be concerned with> can take a person as its subject as well as the usual {bom}, {lut}, etc. If not, I'd cheerfully change {bop} to {buS} or {qIm} or somesuch.</p></div></div></div></div><p class=MsoNormal>~mIp'av</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>