tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jun 28 08:01:11 1995
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
yIwIv
- From: "Mark E. Shoulson" <[email protected]>
- Subject: yIwIv
- Date: Wed, 28 Jun 1995 11:01:09 -0400
Responding to charghwI''s request for input regarding his use of yIwIv for
"which"...
I think part of why there hasn't been too much response is because there's
not much fault to find with it, grammatically. Something like "*nuqDIch"
is obviously questionable from a grammatical perspective, and while "targh
nuq" may be less so, it's certainly questionable semantically. yIwIv is
obviously correct grammatically (make sure you use tIwIv when it's "which
targhs are to be killed?"), and its meaning is transparent.
I'm not so sure that it works in all cases, though. I haven;'t got too
many specific examples in mind, but it may not be sufficiently general, or
it may also fall prey to being too idiomatic. It may sound like I'm asking
you to choose something when in fact you have no control over it at all,
but are merely indicating a "choice" that may hev been made for you,
perhaps confusing you... For example, plans have been intercepted, and
your captain asks, "choose the planets which the Terrans will attack."
"You mean I get to decide?" I suppose if you view "wIv" as more like
"indicate" (le'moH?) it might be clearer.
I also have a gut-feeling that there are simply constructions for which
yIwIv just falls apart (no examples now, so I may be wrong. It's happened
before. At least twice.) It also doesn't help us with the "which"
constructions that are not questioning. We've been using questioning
pronouns as relatives sometimes, on the grounds that it's like two
sentences with the second answering the first (translating "I saw what you
did" as "What have you done? I saw that." [nuq Data'pu' 'e' vIlegh] or
"The what which you have done I saw" [nuq Data'pu'bogh vIlegh]). It should
be noted that this is NOT cannon usage, but on the whole is more reasonable
that it might seem at first glance. But I don't think yIwIv will help us
in "I saw which targhs the captain liked."
This isn't to say that yIwIv is not a good answer to the "which" problem.
But I tend to doubt it's the only one. There's no reason why all cases of
"which" should be handled by even remotely similar constructions in
Klingon, just because they're the same in English. yIwIv is one more tool.
~mark