tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Oct 31 18:27:22 1996

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Re: RE: KLBC: some translations

On Thu, 31 Oct 1996 13:54:32 -0800 David Trimboli <[email protected]> wrote:

> >  SoHvaD jatlhQo'bogh vay' vIDalaw' 'e' vIlIj.
> >  "I forgot that I apparently behave in the manner of someone who 
> >  refuses to speak to you." Does that convey your intended meaning? 
> >  At least it evades {nep} as a transitive.
> 
> Ahh . . . that's very nice.  The one thing I disagree with is your use of 
> {-law'}.  It shows uncertainty on the part of the speaker about the validity 
> of his sentence.  In your case, you *know* how you're behaving, but it only 
> seems that way to *other* people.  If you drop the {-law'} entirely, the 
> sentence is great.

This is something that was not so much an accident/mistake as a question about 
the limits of {-law'}. Does it necessarily have to mean that the speaker is 
uncertain about the validity of the statement, or can it also mean that the 
speaker is certain that the validity of the statement is uncertain? This 
latter meaning is what I sought.

I see a parallel between the verb suffix {-law'} and the pair of noun suffixes 
{-Hey} and {-qoq}. If you strictly hold it to a {-Hey} equivalency and do not 
allow it to bend toward {-qoq}, then I suppose I was mistaken. Still, given 
the love of irony, the existence of {-qoq} at all, and the sly grin to the 
side with healthy cynicism I sense of the warrior race, I suspect strongly 
that one could claim to have uncertainty about the validity of the condition 
of one's behavior, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, laugh.
 
> SoHvaD jatlhQo'bogh vay' vIDa 'e' vIlIj.

To act in the manner of someone who does something does not necessarily imply 
the duplicity of pretending. To appear to act in the manner of someone who 
does something and to call attention to the appearance being different from 
the actual behavior, now THAT is PRETENDING. See?
 
> SuStel
> Stardate 96832.9

charghwI'

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