On 7/11/2016 1:50 PM, Steven Boozer wrote:

Another example where the subject is elided is:

romuluSngan Sambogh 'ej HoHbogh nejwI'

a Romulan hunter-killer probe (KCD)

It’s a small assassination device that has two functions closely connected – {Sam} (“locate” or “seek and find”) and {HoH} (“kill”); so closely that “hunter” and “killer” are hyphenated in English to show they refer to the same thing. Repeating the subject might imply two separate devices:

*romuluSngan Sambogh nejwI’ 'ej HoHbogh nejwI'

a Romulan hunter probe and (a) killer probe

I don't think it can imply two devices. That would require a noun conjunction. What we have here is a compound sentence as a relative clause.

The following would all be correct:

romuluSngan Sambogh nejwI' 'ej HoHbogh nejwI'
romuluSngan Sambogh nejwI' 'ej HoHbogh
rumuluSngan Sambogh 'ej HoHbogh nejwI'

The explained grammar has the second of repeated nouns elided (as per TKD 6.2.1), but common usage also shows the first of repeated nouns being elided to form a sort of "compound verb" (the third example).

Even more interesting would be phrases like

yIH muSbogh tlhIngan 'ej yIH HoHbogh tlhIngan
yIH muSbogh tlhIngan 'ej HoHbogh
yIH muSbogh 'ej HoHbogh tlhIngan
yIH muSbogh tlhIngan 'ej yIH HoHbogh
yIH muSbogh tlhIngan 'ej HoHbogh tlhIngan
...and so on.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name