SuStel:
I'm not sure that would have helped. You weren't interpreting tlhIngan Hol as the subject of jatlhqu'meH; you were interpreting it as the head noun of jatlhqu'meH. Adding a -lu' wouldn't have changed anything.
Oh yes, you're right ! Only now I understood what's happening. SuStel:
Sometimes it is speculated that you need a subject if the purpose clause attaches to a sentence instead of a noun
Because grammar terms confuse me, could you write an example of this ? qunnoq On Mon, Jul 31, 2017 at 6:12 PM, SuStel <sustel@trimboli.name> wrote:
On 7/31/2017 11:00 AM, André Müller wrote:
SuStel, you used -qu' on jatlh to express not intensity of the action or state the verb is describing (e.g. "speak a lot" or "speak loudly" or "speak really well" which would have been possible interpretations for me), but as an emphasis marker, like SPEAKING (as opposed to anything else), sort of like topicalizing a verb.
Is there canonical evidence for this usage? I'm currently in Myanmar and didn't bring my TKD, so I can't check it easily now. But this usage strikes me as odd. Usually so-called "intensifiers" cannot do this in languages, but I don't know how Okrand described -qu' exactly.
From TKD:
-qu' emphatic
This suffix emphasizes or affirms whatever immediately precedes it.
I'll simplify the quotation of the examples given.
yIHaghqu' study him/her well nuQaw'qu'be' they have not finished us off
The roving nature of -qu' can be seen in the following set:
pIHoHvIpbe'qu' we are NOT afraid to kill you pIHoHvIpqu'be' we are not AFRAID to kill you pIHoHqu'vIp'be' we are not afraid to KILL you
The first word above might be used after an enemy challenged the b4ravery of the speaker. The second might be followed by an explanation such as, "We are not willing to kill you because we require your services." The third word would be used to emphasize killing, as opposed to some other form of punishment.
-- SuStel http://trimboli.name
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