[404] in tlhIngan-Hol
"need" and sentential subjects
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Thu Oct 22 15:07:47 1992
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
From: mark <mark@dragonsys.COM>
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 13:25:05 EST
TKD has a section (6.2.5) on the syntax of sentences as objects,
but what about sentences as subjects? I can express
1e. I want to get back to work.
as
1k. jIvumqa' vIneH
but what about
2e. I need to get back to work. ?
I can't say
2k1. * jIvumqa'nIS
because qa' is a type 3 suffix and nIS is type 2, and I can't say
2k2. jIvumnISqa'
because it doesn't mean what I want to say: it means something
like
2k2e. Once again, I need to work.
I've tried using 'ut 'necessary, be necessary'. That requires a
sentential subject construct, on which TKD is silent. There's
3k1. ? 'ut jIvumqa' 'e' ,
which, like the sentential subject examples, puts the embedded-
sentence pronoun 'e' after the embedded sentence. But this breaks
up the structure of the 'ut sentence. Of course, that may be the
way Klingon does it -- other languages do, including English! --
but I wonder whether the other ordering
3k2. ? 'ut 'e' jIvumqa'
would be better. Okrand *does* describe 'e' as referring "to the
*previous* sentence as a whole" (6.2.5, p.69; emphasis added), but
it has happened before that the discovery of new data has forced a
reformulation of part of the grammar (6.7 (2nd edn), p. 179,
"Placement of adverbial elements").
Terran languages, including English, sometimes use inserted
pronouns to maintain the basic structure of the matrix (main)
sentence:
3e1. It is necessary for me to get back to work. or
3e2. It is necessary that I get back to work. .
In 3e, "for me to get back to work" or "that I get back to work"
is the subject of the main verb. We move it to the end of the
matrix sentence (we "extrapose" it) because we find
3e1a. ?? For me to get back to work is necessary. and
3e2a. ?? That I get back to work is necessary.
excessively awkward; and we insert the dummy pronoun "it" to
maintain the Subject-Verb structure of the main sentence. Of
course, jIvumqa' is short and doesn't break up the main sentence
structure much, all the less so because it follows the verb in
normal subject position; but if the dummy pronoun 'e' follows it
here, the main clause
3ka. 'ut 'e'
is broken up, unlike the sentential-subject situation in (1k).
No more of this now. yap tlhIngan Hol jay'; 'ut jIvumqa' 'e'.
Mark A. Mandel
Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 965-5200
320 Nevada St. : Newton, Mass. 02160, USA
Tlhingan khol daghojbe'chugh vaj bikhegh.
