[85484] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: Question problem
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Terrence Donnelly)
Tue May 19 09:38:55 2009
Date: Tue, 19 May 2009 06:36:41 -0700 (PDT)
From: Terrence Donnelly <terrence.donnelly@sbcglobal.net>
To: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
In-Reply-To: <4A121077.3060207@trimboli.name>
Errors-to: tlhingan-hol-bounce@kli.org
Reply-to: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
--- On Mon, 5/18/09, David Trimboli <david@trimboli.name> wrote:
>
> Basic Klingon sentence structure seems to be very
> amorphous. I picture
> it this way:
>
> <header> <object> <verb> <subject>
>
> where <header> is a nebulous blob containing all the
> bits that aren't
> the object, the verb, or the subject. Timestamps tend to
> come first,
> adverbials tend to come before nouns, question words tend
> to come before
> everything else. Of those tendencies, I think only the one
> about
> timestamps is explicit (TKD p. 179); the others probably
> come about due
> to our native language instincts. Strictly speaking,
> according to the
> book, timestamps tend to come first, adverbials tend to
> come last, and
> everything else appears between the two.
>
I think this is right. Consider the phrase {DaHjaj ram}. This could be a N1-N2 phrase used adverbially, "today's evening", or it could be two separate adverbials, "today, at night". I don't think it makes any difference; either interpretation is valid, and both show the flexible nature of the <header> section of a sentence.
-- ter'eS
