tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Aug 02 14:24:09 1995
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Re: Re[2]: }} KLBC: Life is like...
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Re[2]: }} KLBC: Life is like...
- Date: Wed, 2 Aug 95 14:24:09 EDT
According to Alan Anderson:
>
> ghItlh charghwI':
> > [lots of sneaky derivation omitted]
> > So, perhaps legh'eghmoHlu'wI' would mean
> > "thing that makes one see ones self". A mirror.
>
> If I were more comfortable with {-lu'} I might be happier with this.
> "Indefinite subject" is the one part of the language I KNOW I don't
> understand fully. It's less than a page in the dictionary, but I can't
> quite make myself feel secure about how it works. The third-person
> singular object verb prefixes get turned around to apply to the object
> rather than the subject, and the subject is unstated? {vIlegh} "I see it",
> {vIleghlu'} "[something] sees me"?
There are two English constructions that come near what Klingon
does with the indefinite subject. One is the passive
construction, meaning that instead of saying "[something] sees
me," you could have also said, "I am seen." The other is the
somewhat stilted use of "one". "One sees me." Somewhere between
these two things is what Klingon means by the indefinite
subject.
Essentially, like the passive voice, the subject is not
specified and doesn't really matter all that much. The point is
that the action is taken and that it happens to the object of
the verb. There is an agent of the action, but we either don't
care or choose not to specify who or what that agent is. The
agent is somewhat generic.
> {X legh Y} "Y sees X" -- fine.
> {X leghmoH Y} "Y causes X to see" -- fine.
> (legh'egh X} "X sees him/herself" -- fine.
> {X legh'eghmoHlu'} "[something] causes X to see him/herself" -- I'm lost.
> Something about {-moHlu'} just doesn't click.
We have only one canon example, and that one started one of the
longest, most frustrating debates this list has ever known. It
was VERY much abridged and posted in this most recent HolQeD in
the "Round Table". Pardon me if I avoid reopenning it.
> {legh'eghmoHlu'wI'} "thing which causes one to see oneself" -- follows
> nicely from the previous sentence, but I'm not sure why that sentence is
> correct. Does anybody have any helpful explanations?
Does this help at all?
> -- ghunchu'wI'
charghwI'
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