tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jan 07 19:46:52 1999
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Re: Ordering food
ja' peHruS:
>>> wej nuvpu'vaD qagh vIneHbej
>
>Looks like we'll be discussing the proper use of {-vaD}. As I read TKD, I
>discover
>{-vaD} is the syntactic marker of "indirect object."
Um, no. {-vaD} is the syntactic marker for the beneficiary of an action.
In many English sentences, the indirect object is the beneficiary, so it
is appropriate *in those sentences* to use {-vaD}.
>I definitely want qagh "intended for" three people.
First, you don't have an indirect object in this idea. You have a subject
"I", a verb "want" (qualified with "definitely"), and an object "qagh for
three people".
Second, English phrases like this don't translate directly unless you add
back in the understood relative pronouns first. You want qagh *which is*
intended for them. The way you phrased it originally, you've indicated that
the people are the beneficiary of the wanting. You want them to be the
beneficiary of the food, and that's not something that Klingon grammar has a
simple tool to express.
Try the standard technique of adding a sentence to clarify the intent.
{qagh vIneHbej. wej nuv je'meH yapnIS.}
{qagh vIneHbej. wej nuvvaD yapnIS.}
{qagh vIneHbej. poQ wej nuv ghung.}
Etc.
-- ghunchu'wI'