tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jun 08 07:25:07 1999
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: causative
QeHHoS wrote:
: And how do we say "You will die on your knees'
This part is easy: Turn the noun phrase "on your knees" into a verb phrase
"while kneeling". It turns out that this was heard in the movie ST6:
QamvIS Hegh qaq law' torvIS yIn qaq puS!
Better to die on our feet than live on our knees!
It was also included in TKW, where Okrand translated it literally:
"Dying while standing is preferable to living while kneeling."
Commenting on the odd use of {-vIS}, Okrand says (TKW p.95),
"The grammatical construction is a bit aberrant; one would expect
{QamtaHvIS} and {tortaHvIS}. In proverbs, grammatical shortcuts
are not uncommon."
In real life it's possible that the actor - or whoever typed his script at
Paramount - simply ommitted {-taH} by mistake and the director either didn't
notice it or didn't want to bother refilming the scene. Since you're not
quoting a proverb, just say:
bItortaHvIS bIHegh.
You will die on your knees.
("You will die while you are kneeling.")
I want to think about your questions on causatives a bit more.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons