Re: Positioning for emphasis

In a message dated 9/14/2007 1:23:46 PM Central Daylight Time,
sboozer@uchicago.edu writes:


> lay'tel SIvten:
> > >> Klingon has a very rigid word order.  It's OVS.
>
> Philip Newton:
> > > It does let you front a topic, though, so I daresay one could replace
> > > {yaS qIp puq} "the child hit the officer" with {puq'e' yaS qIp} "As
> > > for the child, (it) hit the officer". I don't think you'd have to use
> > > a resumptive pronoun.
>
> lay'tel SIvten:
> >I don't think you even could use a resumptive pronoun (which I've never
> heard
> >used in connection with Klingon).  A pronoun in the position of a resumptive
> >pronoun would likely be considered a different entity from the one in the
> >fronted topic.  But yes, topics can be used for emphasis.  {jIlugh'a'?}
>
> I can only find three examples of fronting the topic in Klingon:
>
>    cheng'e' DaH yISam
>    Find Chang. ST6
>
>    HaqwI''e' DaH yISam
>    Find the surgeon now!" (TKD 180)
>
> Note that these are variants of the same sentence.  Note too that it's the
> object that's fronted before the adverbial, not the subject.  Alternate
> translations (with different punctuation) rendering the marked flavor or
> the Klingon might be "Chang...find him now!" or "A/The surgeon! Find him
> now!"
>
>    qIbDaq SuvwI''e' SoH Dun law' Hoch Dun puS
>    You would be the greatest warrior in the galaxy. ST5
>
> This is an introductory phrase for the {A Q law' B Q puS} formula:  "As for
> warrior(s) in the galaxy, you are the greatest [one] of all."  Introductory
> clauses are frequently seen with law'/puS formulae BTW.
>
> And that's it AFAIK.
>
> As for Philip's example of "As for the child, (it) hit the officer", the
> only way to grammatically translate this is {yaS qIp puq'e'}.  Although the
> subject can be fronted in English, it can't in Klingon; it can only be
> tagged with the topic suffix {-'e}:
>
>    puqpu' chaH qama'pu''e'
>    The prisoners are children.
>    As for the prisoners, they are children. (TKD 68)
>
>    pa'DajDaq ghaHtaH la''e'
>    The commander is in his quarters.
>    As for the commander, he is in his quarters. (TKD 68)
>
> Which means that these sentences have alternate translations:
>
>    nuqDaq 'oH puchpa''e'
>    Where's the bathroom? PK
>
> "As for the bathroom, where is it?"
>
>    tera'ngan ghaH qama''e'
>    The prisoner is a Terran. KGT
>
> "As for the prisoner, s/he's a Terran."
>
>    bIghHa'Daq ghaHtaH qama''e'
>    The prisoner is in the prison. KGT
>
> "As for the prisoner, s/he's in the prison."
>
>    qIvo'rIt toQDuj 'oH tlhIngan wo' Duj pagh'e'
>    The Imperial Klingon Vessel Pagh is a K'Vort-class Bird-of-Prey. S7
>
> "As for the IKV Pagh, it's a K'Vort-class Bird-of-Prey."
>
> According to our current knowledge of colloquial Klingon, ?{puq'e' yaS qIp}
> would most likely be understood as "S/he hit the CHILD's officer, It was
> the child's officer whom s/he hit" (i.e. not some other officer).
>
>
>
> --
> Voragh
> Ca'Non Master of the Klingons
>
This is a resend, since the forward didn't work.

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