tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun May 03 23:20:29 1998

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing



[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

RE: (Fwd) Re: states, activities (was Much Ado)





> ----------
> From: 	Nathan Grange[SMTP:[email protected]]
> 
> 
> > From: Stauffer, Tad E (STAUFTE7) <[email protected]>
> > 
> > >   I had a thought about how this use of imperative stative verbs might
> > >be explained.. In the case of {..yIyoH}, the state can be changed by
> the
> > >person spoken to, without any actual physical act. With {petaD} (when
> > >taken literally), however, a physical process is required. When
> ordered,
> > >you can't simply try to become frozen.. you have to do something to
> > >cause yourself to be frozen, such as jump in a barrel of liquid
> > >nitrogen. Similarly, I don't think that {yIHegh} could be used properly
> > >as a command under normal circumstances, since you can't just die at
> > >will.  You would have to do something physical to change to that
> > >condition.
> 
> good argument, but, (stop me if i'm wrong), but there is a section on 
> the CD, (its like the second choice you have to make, Pok's 
> father(??), says, bItaD, (or something similar..) when he is about to 
> be zapped by the Romulan assasin probe thingy, the appropriate, 
> 'choice' at this point is to wait....(it took me days to figure it 
> out....)
> 
  He said "petaD". I'm pretty sure this quote from the Klingon CD game is
what caused Okrand to put {petaD} in KGT in the first place. He mentioned
this on p.117 as an idiom because it doesn't make normal sense in the CD
otherwise. So when Pok's father says {petaD}, he means "Don't move!", using
{taD} as an activity. If Pok's father really meant "Freeze!" literally,
where {taD} would be used as a state of being, he would have used
"petaD'eghmoH".

Tad Stauffer
[email protected]


Back to archive top level