tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Apr 12 09:14:14 1995
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Re: Relative sentences
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Relative sentences
- Date: Wed, 12 Apr 95 12:14:10 EDT
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>; from "Alan Anderson" at Apr 12, 95 8:40 am
According to Alan Anderson:
>
> "A.Appleyard" <[email protected]> challenged:
> >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?
>
> Dujchaj lu'avmeH HoD beqpu'Daj je pu'Hom'e' lulo'be'bogh vISuq 'e' vItlhobta'.
This touches on one of those controversial areas of grammar.
How do we combine a {-meH} clause with a negative main verb? It
sounds like somehow not using the phaser actively assisted in
accomplishing the goal of guarding the ship. See?
Consider that the ship might have an alarm which would go off
if a weapon were brought on-board (not that any Klingon would
have use for such a ship). The phaser might then be avoided in
order to successfully walk around the ship to make sure
everything is okay, all without setting off the alarm. In this
setting, your sentence would be fine. Meanwhile, I don't think
that's what you mean. {-taHvIS} doesn't have this controversy.
> I translated it "in order that they guard" rather than "while they guard" to
> keep the phrase from ambiguously relating to the "I did request" part. With
> that minor adjustment, it seems pretty straighforward to me.
>
> -- ghunchu'wI'
charghwI'
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