As an aside: Maybe I'm wrong, but I've always thought of the way prefixes work with *-lu'* when there is an object as a funny way to reflect the typical transformations from active to passive, i.e., the object in active become the subject in passive and the subject in active become the agent in passive, so *One has eaten the cakes* (he / she - them) become *The cakes have been eaten by someone* (they - by him / her).
You definitely shouldn't think of the Klingon indefinite subject
as being related to any kind of passive voice. When you replace
the subject with -lu', everything else about the clause
remains the same except for the prefix.
jIH mulegh ghaH He sees me.
jIH vIleghlu' Someone unspecified sees me. (jIH
remains the object.)
It's only in the English translation does anything to do with passive voice potentially appear.
We are told in TKD the reason the prefixes change with the indefinite subject:
Since the subject is always the same (that is, it is always unstated), the pronomial prefixes... are used in a different way. Those prefixes which normally indicate first- or second-person subject and third-person object... are used to indicate first- or second-person object.
Just a short question: With no object *-lu'* takes always the prefix 0, right?
Yes. Example: quSDaq ba'lu''a' Is this seat taken?
(Literally, Does one sit in chair?)
-- SuStel http://trimboli.name