[663] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: Infinitives
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Fri Apr 23 06:02:53 1993
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
From: A.APPLEYARD@fs1.mt.umist.ac.uk
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
Date: 23 Apr 93 09:06:40 GMT
> SPEERS@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu wrote on Thu, 22 Apr 1993 12:21 EDT:-
> Mark Reed says:
Actually I (A.Appleyard) wrote the next paragraph, in reply to something
that Mark Reed wrote:-
>> ... But, if `Y` is a verb, then `Y-ghach` <is> an infinitive, or can be
used as one - that is what a verb infinitive is, a noun meaning "the act of
Y-ing". In Classical Arabic and the Vedic dialect of Sanskrit (and in
Tolkien's Quenya) verb infinitives are declinable nouns that can also be used
as "Y-ation", "the act or state of Y-ing", "Y-ingness".
> The "Y-ing" for you refer to is not an infinitive, but a gerund; a verb
used as a noun. An infinitive is just that: tenseless. How is it used? ... as
a clausal complement of a verb. This clause can behave as a noun phrase, as in
"To lead the group is my ambition", where the subject of the sentence is [to
lead the group]. In this case, 'to lead' is still in a verb position, within a
clause which is used as a subject.
In many infinitive constructions "to <verb>" can be easily replaced by
"-ing" or "-ation" etc: "Leading the group is my ambition" (where a (gerund
rather than an infinitive) has an object); "I want to go home" -> "I want a
journey home"; "to deceive is wrong" -> "deception is wrong".
