[Tlhingan-hol] KLBC: {-mo'} noun suffix vs. {-mo'} verb suffix

[SuStel]

On 2/18/2016 10:51 AM, mayql qunenoS wrote:
> ok, thanks ! So, and in order to be 100% certain I will ask :
>
> Whenever the -mo' noun suffix migrates to the end of a noun - be verb
> pair, the resulting construction needs to come first in the sentence.
> So far so good. Does the same apply when the rest of the type 5 noun
> suffixes are concerned ? For instance will the constructions {noun -
> be verb}Daq, {noun - be verb}vo', {noun - be verb}vaD need to be
> placed too at the beginning of the sentence ?

Any noun OR NOUN PHRASE that isn't a subject or object is usually placed 
at the beginning of a sentence. Time phrases go first, others come after 
the time phrase but before the OVS.

One type 5 noun suffix that can easily appear as a subject is {-'e'}. We 
see an example of this in TKD, which has an error which I will correct: 
{jIlujpu' jIH'e'} "I, and only I, have failed. It is I who has failed."

Theoretically nouns with other type 5 suffixes can appear as subject, 
but we've never seen one, and the meaning would probably be very odd. 
Consider: ?{'up be'Daq} "the state of being near the woman is 
disgusting." I don't know if it's valid Klingon, but it doesn't actually 
break any rules.

We've seen objects with type 5 suffixes a number of times. Aside from 
{-'e'} (e.g., {De''e' vItlhapnISpu'} "I needed to get the INFORMATION," 
TKD) sometimes verbs that include a locative sense add {-Daq} to their 
objects redundantly. For instance, {pa'lIjDaq yIjaH} "go to your room!" 
(CK) doesn't mean to go while you're in your room; it means you're not 
in your room and you need to go to it. But we also have {jolpa' yIjaH} 
"go to the transporter room!" (ST3) in which the object is the 
destination and does not have {-Daq} on it. So while an object with a 
type 5 suffix on it "comes at the beginning," it only comes at the 
beginning of the OVS structure; there may be other words that come even 
before that, and its position is fixed.

But MOST nouns or noun phrases with a type 5 noun suffix that aren't 
{-'e'} go before the OVS structure (but after any time phrase). We also 
have one example of an {-'e'} noun being used as a "header" as well. 
Most of these nouns and noun phrases aren't a subject or object, and so 
they go toward the front.

So the answer to your question is that adjectival noun phrases with type 
5 suffixes aren't special with regard to "moving" to the front of a 
sentence; that's just the most likely place where they'll mean what you 
want them to mean. They go in exactly the same place they'd go if they 
weren't modified by verbs. If you'd put {tlhInganpu'qoqmo'} "because of 
the so-called Klingons" at the beginning of a sentence, you'd also put 
{tlhInganpu'qoq QuchHa'mo'} "because of the unhappy so-called Klingons} 
at the beginning. Modifying with a verb and migrating the suffix changes 
nothing.

But I could also say, {SuvvIp tlhInganpu'qoq QuchHa''e'} "it is the 
unhappy so-called Klingons, and only those, who are afraid to fight." 
{-'e'}, as a type 5 noun suffix, migrates to the end of the modifying 
verb, but the position of the noun phrase doesn't change.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name