[802] in tlhIngan-Hol
too many meanings for `'e'`?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Mon May 10 22:25:07 1993
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Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
From: (Mark E. Shoulson) <shoulson@ctr.columbia.edu>
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
Date: Mon, 10 May 93 15:46:10 -0400
In-Reply-To: A.APPLEYARD@fs1.mt.umist.ac.uk's message of 10 May 93 10:35:34 GMT
>From: A.APPLEYARD@fs1.mt.umist.ac.uk
>Date: 10 May 93 10:35:34 GMT
>Priority: normal
>X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail v2.3 (R4).
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> Uses of 'e' in Fri 7 May's email have again brought to my attention the
>somewhat confusing apparent variety of uses for 'e'. As well as these three
>that I noticed before, e.g. qama''e' = :-
> (a) "the prisoner who/which", i.e. as relative clause antecedent.
> (b) "<that> prisoner", i.e. not some other prisoner.
> (c) "the <prisoner>", i.e. not the warder or the maintenance man.
> The examples in TKD 3.3.5 `lujpu' jIh'e'` = "<I> failed", and `De''e'` = the
><information>, are certainly type (c). But in 6.3 `puqpu' chaH qama'pu''e'` =
>"the prisoners are children", which he translates as "As for the prisoners,
>they are children", implying that the 'e' is again type (c), there seems to be
>a fourth meaning of 'e' creeping in:
> (d) X qama''e' = "the prisoner which is a/the X" not "the X's prisoner",
> It is said that 'e' = "this is the topic", but the topic in what sense? As
>the subject? As the antecedent (if the clause is relative?) As a word to
>contrast with some other word?
As I understand it, this use of -'e' is some sort of fossilized syntactic
construction, whose meaning probably can't be justified by logic, any more
than the law'/puS construction can be (if they're "A's Q is great", how
come the Q is a verb? If it's a verb, how come it comes after the subject?
Just 'cuz, that's it.) When pronouns are used as copulas, the "subject"
(insofar as that makes sense with a copula, which indicates identity), is
flagged with -'e'. Why? Isn't it obvious by its position after the
pronoun? Yep. But it's flagged anyway, because that's how my old Klingon
grandpappy did it.
> I feel that these meanings should all have distinct Klingon translations.
>The Klingon word `'I'` is unallocated so far, for a start.
> Any chance of someone contacting Marc Okrand about the legality of 'e'mo'?
~mark
