tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Jan 24 11:39:46 1998
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Re: Nature phenomenon
- From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Nature phenomenon
- Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 15:34:17 -0500
-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Anderson <[email protected]>
To: Multiple recipients of list <[email protected]>
Date: Thursday, January 22, 1998 9:48 PM
Subject: Re: Nature phenomenon
>ja' SuStel:
>>I think we just have to find out what the proper subject for these verbs
is.
>>Perhaps it is {muD} "atmosphere."
>
>Or perhaps it's the stuff that falls from the sky. Is it the sky which
>rains, or is it the droplet of water? Is it the sky which snows, or is
>it the tiny ice crystal?
>>tlhIngan wa': HurDaq muD Dotlh nuq?
>>("What's the weather like outside?")
>>
>>tlhIngan cha': SIStaH. (or, {SIStaH muD})
>>("It's raining.")
Quite possible. Let us suppose for a moment that {bIQ} is the commonly
accepted subject of {SIS} (and that there is not a wide range of different
possible subjects). Then the conversation would go like this:
tlhIngan wa': HurDaq muD Dotlh nuq?
("What's the weather like outside?")
tlhIngan cha': SIStaH. (or, {SIStaH bIQ})
("It's raining.")
See what I'm getting at? If there's one accepted subject for a verb, it is
very possible (though not necessary) that the subject will frequently be
left off as redundant. If {bIQ} is always the subject of {SIS}, then you
should be able to drop it often because you know what it's going to be
anyway. It's not related to the English idiom of describing the weather, it
just follows Klingon rules. And it doesn't matter what the correct subject
it. Atmosphere, water, crystals, whatever.
Again, I'm not saying this is definitely the right answer. I'm just saying
that I think this is more likely than {SISlu'}, which seems to me
constructed solely for the purpose of avoiding the English idiom with all
our might.
>I agree with Qov that falling back on an unstated "it" sounds an awful
>lot like an indefinite subject. There's a matter of degree involved,
>of course, and there's certainly room for debate -- at least until we
>find a "real" example of how Klingons talk about the weather.
We've really got to increase funding for the KLI's Qo'noS field trip
account.
SuStel
Stardate 98063.9