tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jan 06 15:01:00 1998
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Re: DIS chu' Quch
- From: Terrence Donnelly <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: DIS chu' Quch
- Date: Tue, 06 Jan 1998 16:54:19 -0600
At 01:34 PM 1/6/98 -0800, SuStel wrote:
>>You could say {Quchbogh DIS chu' DatIvjaj} - "May you enjoy a new
>>year that is happy" = Have a happy new year.
>
>This demonstrates another form of which I am fond: using an adjectival verb
>only once, and sticking the entire noun phrase into a relative clause. It
>follows all known rules. Given the information in KGT, however, I wonder if
>it isn't somehow stylistically wrong to Klingons. Okrand does tell us that
>one "must say" {SuDbogh Dargh 'ej wovbogh} to say this phrase.
>
Yeah, I wonder about this, too. Okrand does give the impression that
you must use the {X-bogh N 'ej Y-bogh} form with two adjectives of
quality; on the other hand, I can't think of any reason why this would
be so.
You can see why you can't just glom two adjectives onto a noun, eg
*{DIS chu' Quch}. There's no known mechanism to indicate that they're both
modifiers of the noun. (In this case, it _could_ mean "the forehead activates
the year"!) So I can understand the need to move one of the verbs into
a relative clause, but why would this now make the noun unable to take
a regular adjective anymore?
After all, can't you say things like {qettaHbogh loD Doy'}? If you can't,
how could you use a phrase like {qettaHbogh loD 'ej Doy'bogh} as the
subject or object of a sentence? *{qettaHbogh loD 'ej Doy'bogh vIlegh} =
"I see ? who is tired and (new sentence without a verb) a running man"?
I'm hoping that Okrand clears this up someday and explicitly endorses
your idea.
-- ter'eS