On 11/20/2020 4:55 PM, Will Martin wrote:
I’ve always been curious as to why the sentence wasn’t {nuqDaq puchpa’ ‘oHtaH?}
The answer would be to point down the hall and say {nIHDaq puchpa’ ‘oHtaH} (sung to the tune of “Theeeere’s a Bathroom, On The Right”, a.k.a. “There’s a Bad Moon On The Rise”).
It seems weird to answer {nIHDaq ‘oH puchpa’’e’.} It’s just different from all the other “to be” sentence structures. It would be like saying {maH tlhIngan’e’} instead of {tlhIngan maH.}
{nuqDaq} is not the thing that is synonymous with bathroom. It’s the place the bathroom is being. We usually handle that with {X-Daq ‘oHtaH.} We usually use {-‘e’} when we have a pronoun between two nouns, neither of which is a locative.
When you use a copula sentence in Klingon, you're not saying the two things are synonymous. You're saying there is a link between them. The verbal suffixes on the pronoun and the syntactic suffixes on the noun tell you what that link is. *nIHDaq 'oH puchpa''e' */The bathroom is on the right./* *The link between *nIH* and *puchpa'* is that when talking about the bathroom, its location is on the right. *HoD ghaHvIp torgh'e' */Torg is afraid to be the captain. /The link between *HoD* and *torgh* is that when talking about Torg, he is afraid of being the captain. *jagh chaHbe' Human'e' */The humans are not enemies. /The link between *jagh* and *Human* is that when talking about humans, they have a negative identification with enemies. Don't think of copula sentences as working like basic sentences, with subject and objects and verbs. They follow their own completely distinct grammar. -- SuStel http://trimboli.name