I think you’ve just done a much better job of explaining “to be” in Klingon than TKD does. Meanwhile, I’m trying to remember where Okrand made sentences that were consistently in the form: {X-Daq <noun> <pronoun>-taH} It seemed important to put {-taH} on the pronoun. So, why isn’t it {nIHDaq ‘oHtaH puchpa’’e’.}? charghwI’ vaghnerya’ngan rInpa’ bomnIS be’’a’ pI’.
On Nov 20, 2020, at 5:01 PM, SuStel <sustel@trimboli.name> wrote:
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.
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