tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Apr 11 19:59:30 1997
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RE: KLBC
- From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: KLBC
- Date: Fri, 11 Apr 97 22:40:21 UT
On Friday, April 11, 1997 5:46 PM, [email protected] on behalf of
[email protected] wrote:
> Hello everyone!
> I am new to this listserv, I am a linguistics student and in one of my
> classes this semester we are going to analyze Klingon.
Yikes! I've got a whole classroom full now!
> My group has
> decided to focus on passive sentences and questions. We have a couple
> dictionaries but we are still struggling with some questions. We would
> greatly appreciate any help you could give us. Does anyone know how case
> is assigned in Klingon and if there is noun phrase movement when
> constructing passives and questions?
Well, this isn't really a KLBC question, but I can help out a bit. The answer
to the last bit, whether there is any noun phrase movement for questions, is
no. After that, it gets a little tricky.
Klingon does not have a passive and active distinction. A sentence is a
sentence. What it *does* have, though, is an indefinite subject form, marked
by the verb suffix {-lu'}. When using this form the English *translation* is
often in the passive voice. The Klingon is still not passive. For example:
jIH vIleghlu'.
Someone indefinite sees me.
This would usually be translated as "I am seen." However, where in English
you've got "I" as the subject of a passive sentence, in Klingon {jIH} "I" is
still the object of the sentence. Sometimes, it is easier to follow if it is
translated as "One sees me."
So, there is no noun shifting when using the indefinite subject. However,
there *is* an unusual rule for the verb prefixes when it happens. The
prefixes indicating third-person singular object are the only ones used, and
the choice of which to use is based solely on the object.
jIH mulegh ghaH
He sees me.
jIH vIleghlu'.
I am seen (indefinite subject sees me).
More on {-lu'}: see TKD 4.2.5.
And to further clarify questions. When asking a yes/no question, you simply
add the Type 9 suffix {-'a'} to the verb. That's it.
When asking "what?" {nuq} or "who/whom?" {'Iv}, the question word is simply
inserted where the answer would go. The same is true of "where?" {nuqDaq},
though this word is never subject or object. It is placed before the
Obj-Verb-Subj form.
When asking "when?" {ghorgh}, "how?" {chay'}, or "why?" {qatlh}, the question
word simply precedes the sentence.
When asking "how much?" {'ar}, the question word is placed after the noun
you're asking how much of. This noun must always be singular.
More on question words: see TKD 6.4.
Unfortunately, I'm not really qualified to give you a lot of info on cases.
The case names always get jumbled around in my head! I *do* know that Marc
Okrand has mentioned the genetive (sorry, should I be writing that GENITIVE?
Tough . . .) case, equivalent to the possessive noun-noun construction (TKD
3.4), on the Star Trek: Klingon Langauge Lab. The Klingon Dictionary does not
deal with this in quite so scholarly a manner!
--
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97278.4