[986] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: verbs in compounds (was: Re: epithets (taHqeq))
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Tue Jun 15 09:35:36 1993
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
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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: 15 Jun 93 12:49:43 GMT
> Then you might want to read 3.2.1, p.19.
Thanks for the reference: it says that compound nouns are formed from 2 or
more nouns chained.
> ... correct way might be jIbDaqDoqwI'. Or jIbDoqghajwI'. Or jIbDoqnuv ...
My analyser gets from these:
(1) jIbDaqDoqnuv
- N:head_hair N:[site|location]* V:be_[orange|red] N:[person|humanoid]
(i.e. - N:head_hair NS5: locative V:be_[orange|red] N:[person|humanoid])
(2) jIbDoqghajwI'
- N:head_hair V:be_[orange|red] V:have VS9:[agent|instrument]
(3) jIbDoqnuv
- N:head_hair V:be_[orange|red] N:[person|humanoid]
These all seem to me to be noun-verb-noun, and (1) has an internal suffix.
> .. . Or maybe you simply can't make a compound like that at all ...
Then how <do> we translate bahuvrihis etc without long awkward periphrases?
With a relative clause, we are back to the ambiguity of which word is the
antecedent: e.g. `Doqbogh jIbDaj`?; inserting `'e'` would make FIVE syllables;
and, as I mentioned before, such a use of `'e'` is ambiguous between "this,
that" and ordinary emphasis and antecedent-marker.
Even French, which does not form many compounds, forms bahuvrihis sometimes:
e.g. I found in a story a character nicknamed "Le Long Carbine" (literally
`beH tiq`), although he was not a long gun but its owner.
