tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Apr 05 08:38:34 1995
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Re: Relative sentences
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Relative sentences
- Date: Wed, 5 Apr 95 11:38:31 EDT
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>; from "A.Appleyard" at Apr 5, 95 4:55 am
According to A.Appleyard:
>
> ... If I convert it into matter known to TKD, e.g. "I asked for the
> little phaser which the captain and his crew do not use when guarding their
> ship", any goes at translating it into Klingon as one sentence?
This depends on what the original means. I can't tell because
of a minor stylistic flaw in the original. If you replace the
word "which" with the word "that", then the relative clause
becomes exclusive and unambiguous. By that, I mean that there
are many little phasers all about, but I'm referring only to
the one that the captain and his crew don't use while they
guard their ship.
I asked for the little phaser that the captain and his crew do
not use when guarding their ship.
Dujchaj 'avtaHvIS HoD beqDaj je pu' mach'e' lo'be'bogh chaH
vIlo'meH vItlhob.
If the original was not intended to be exclusive, then "which"
is the correct word, but there is one or two missing commas. If
there is only one missing comma:
I asked for the little phaser, which the captain and his crew
do not use when guarding their ship.
Klingon doesn't really seem to support parenthetical remarks,
so THIS sentence would probably parse out as two separate
sentences. As such, it is easy to disambiguate whether the time
stamp, "when guarding their ship", goes with the main verb or
with the relative clause. The relative clause instead becomes
its own sentence.
Dujchaj 'avtaHvIS HoD beqDaj je pu' mach lo'be' chaH. pu'vam
vIlo' 'e' vItlhob.
Meanwhile, if it is not an exclusive clause and there is
another missing comma, the meaning changes entirely:
"I asked for the little phaser, which the captain and his crew
do not use, when guarding their ship." Now, I seem to be asking
for the phaser while *I* am guarding their ship. There is no
reference to a time when they don't use the phaser. One
presumes they NEVER use the phaser. Since it is still a
parenthetical remark and would be parsed as two sentences, this
is easy to represent:
pu' mach lo'be' HoD beqDaj je. Dujchaj vI'avtaHvIS pu'vam vIlo'
'a' vItlhob.
Once again, Klingon shows itself to be more expressive than
English.
charghwI'
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