tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Feb 12 05:58:54 1998

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Re: 2 more words

ja' peHruS:
>The officer turns toward the mountains and points toward his house.

HuDmeyDaq tlhe' yaS.  juHDaj 'ang nItlhDaj.
HuDmey buSchoH yaS.  juHDajDaq nItlhDaj Qeq.
HuDmey leghmeH DIng yaS.  juHDaj ngu' nItlhDaj tIH.

>After considering both {tlhe'} and {qaD}, I remain unsure about either of
>them.  Does {tlhe'} mean that a thing turns, for example, the spacecraft turns
>[at certain coordinates], or does it mean I turn the spacecraft?  

I don't remember any examples of this word being used by Okrand, so I 
can't tell you whether it's transitive or not.  My usage above assumes
it is intransitive; the subject is the thing which changes the way it 
is facing.  If it turns out that the subject is the thing which 
*causes* something to change its orientation, my sentence should say
{tlhe'egh} instead.  {DIng} has exactly the same problem.  If we wait 
for clarification on each ambiguous verb before using it, we'll end up
being paralyzed.  yIvang!  yISuD!  bImujlaH 'e' yIngIl!  Most of us 
are able to figure out what you mean if you leave off a {-moH} on an
intransitive verb or an {-'egh} on a transitive one.

>Allowing for
>the fact that Klingons challenge everything, {qaD} might work well.  OTOH, how
>can I indicate that the officers orients himself toward the mountains without
>"challenging" them?

I don't understand why you're even considering "challenge" here.  Is 
there some connection between it and "turn toward" that I don't see?

>Next, there is the problem of pointing, indicating, referring to.  {'oS} only
>means "represents, indicates."  {qel} only covers "concerning, being about,
>taking into consideration."

{'ang} means "show, reveal".  {buS} means "focus on".  {Qeq} means 
"aim".  {puS} means "sight".  law' nuHmaj.

-- ghunchu'wI'

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