tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Apr 18 03:17:25 1995
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(mostly KLBC) varia
`Iv ghaH SuvwI''e', 'e' 'ang 'etlh; 'Iv ghaH QulwI''e', 'e' 'ang ghItlh.
vaj ghomvam vImuvDI' SIbI' HolQeDveS vIjeSchoH:
On Mon, 17 Apr 1995 17:25:59 -0400, "William H. Martin" <[email protected]> said:
> According to [email protected]:
>> bIrop bIghItlh 'e' vIlaD jI'IQmoHpu'
> That's not quite a sentence, but I know what you meant.
> Perhaps you meant:
> jIrop bIghItlh 'e' vIlaDDI' jI'IQchoH.
chaq ram Dochvam (in all likelihood a matter of idiomatic usage),
'ach _lojba_ngan jIHmo' reH 'oH rurbogh Dochmey vIqIm:
if (1a) means (1b), shouldn't (2a) mean (2b)?
(1) a. _bIrop 'e' vIlaD._
b. `I read (a report saying) that you were ill.'
(2) a. _<<jIrop>> bIghItlh 'e' vIlaD._
b. ?`I read (a report saying) that you wrote that you were ill.'
It seems that (2a) introduces a superfluous level of indirection,
since what he read was your message itself, not a report that you
had written it. My entry:
(3) _<<jIrop>> bIghItlhbogh vIlaD._
`I read the "I am ill" that you wrote.'
On Tue, 18 Apr 1995 02:41:46 -0400, Riku Anttila <[email protected]> said:
> I don't think the line in CK accomplishes anything. It's already
> there in TKD - see {jubbe', motlhbe', lo'laHbe'}.
Talking of _lo'laH(be')_:
_lo'_ is `use', so _lo'laH_ is `be able to use', isn't it? But
`be useful' doesn't mean `be able to use', it means `be able to
be used'. We get something like this:
_vIlo'_ `I use it'
_vIlo'laH_ `I can use it'
_vIlo'lu'_ `someone uses me'
_jIlo'laH_ `someone can use me', `I am usable/useful'
Not much symmetry in the Klingon forms, but I suppose that's the way
around the incompatibility of _-lu'_ and _-laH_. The question is,
then, whether _-laH_ generally absorbs _-lu'_ (and _V-laH_ means `be
Vable' for any verb V) or _lo'laH_ is an idiosyncratic case and is
listed in tKD because of that.
(Will that do to open a can of qagh, I wonder? :-))
--'Iwvan (HISlaH, tlhIngan pongwIj 'oH pongvam'e')
--
`"Haud oan there a meenit," says the king tae Joseph, "I've been thinkin."'
Ivan A Derzhanski ([email protected]) (J Stuart, _Auld Testament Tales_)
* Centre for Cognitive Science, 2 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LW, UK
* Cowan House E113, Pollock Halls, 18 Holyrood Pk Rd, Edinburgh EH16 5BD, UK