[Tlhingan-hol] {-moH}

[Tim Stoffel]

Could a lot of the confusion here be cleared up by the fact that Klingon
has a strict word order, and that the object of a verb is indicated by
its position in the sentence? In that case a marker for only an indirect
object would be needed, as the direct object (and usually the only
object) is apparent by its position in the sentence?

Tim Stoffel

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-----Original Message-----
From: lojmIt tI'wI' nuv 'utlh <lojmitti7wi7nuv at gmail.com>
To: Klingon language email discussion forum <tlhingan-hol at kli.org>
Subject: Re: [Tlhingan-hol] {-moH}
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 2015 12:19:57 -0500

It’s interesting that you’d mark my term “agent of causation” as a problem, and then replace it with “causer”, which is mysteriously less of a problem.

I get it.

You are saying that unlike any other verb suffix, {-moH} changes the action of the verb. Now, the verb is not doing the action of the root verb. It’s doing the causing of the action of what is now a different verb. So, {ghojmoH} does not actually mean “cause to learn”. {ghojmoH} now actually MEANS “teach”. So, any object of the verb “teach” is the valid object of {ghojmoH}.

It’s not that I don’t understand this. I just don’t like it. No other suffix acts like this, changing the nature of the objects of the root verb on which they are attached.

lojmIt tI’wI’ nuv ‘utlh
Door Repair Guy, Retired Honorably