tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Feb 02 10:14:50 1995
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Re: how to thank
>Date: Thu, 2 Feb 1995 11:09:59 -0500
>Originator: [email protected]
>From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
>According to Alan Anderson:
>>
>> When I wanted to thank ~mark for the information he gave me, I started with the
>> English "Thanks for the info." Casting that into the {thlIngan mu'tay'}, I got
>> "I thank you for the information" -> "for-information I-thank-you." Except
>> that I wasn't sure "for" is really what I want here.
As charghwI' already pointed out, your reasoning is *excellent*, and indeed
"-mo'" makes far more sense than "-vaD". yIHem! batlh mu'tlheghlIj
DachenmoHta'.
>> This is a precise way to say what I wanted to say, so that's what I translated
>> into {thlIngan Hol}: {De' chonobmo' ~mark qatlho'neS.}
>MUCH better! The only think I feel a little shaky about is the
>use of "~mark", which, like any explicit noun, is third person,
>in the explicit object position while your prefix indicates a
>second person object. Maybe it works just like you intend it
>to, but I can't be sure. I think what you are doing is referred
>to in linguistic terms as "apposition". "I thank you, ~mark."
>Here, "you" and "~mark" are essentially restatements of a
>reference to the same person. Okrand doesn't tell us how to do
>that in Klingon. The way you do it does make sense, if it is
>legal to do it at all, but I think this is the kind of thing we
>should check with Okrand before we get in too much of a habit
>of doing frequently.
Actually, I wouldn't even hassle you about this. It's sorta apposition, I
guess, but it doesn't even have to be viewed as that. Okrand has permitted
us vocatives (names or nouns used in direct address): see S. 5.6. So,
consider it "Because you gave me information, Mark, I thank you humbly"
(not "Because you (Mark) gave me information..."). Okrand does say that
names in address should come at the beginning or end of the sentence, so I
guess you might have to put it differently, but I'm not sure you do. After
all, "De' chonobmo'" is a sentence in a way too. It's a dependent clause.
I'm inclined to permit the address to come after that clause. But that's
me.
~mark