tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Feb 28 05:47:05 2004
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Re: Body parts and verb prefixes
On 27 Feb 2004 at 14:11, Quvar wrote:
> Am 27.02.2004 09:22:15, schrieb "Se'noj le'umaS" <[email protected]>:
>
> >Which is correct: {{Sa'HutwIj HIchop}} pagh {{Sa'HutwIj yIchop}}?
>
> {yIchop} The prefix must fit the correct object and subject.
>
> >Personally, I prefer the former, because if you bite my arse, you are, in
> >effect, biting me, though I can see a possibility for it to be considered
> >ungrammatical.
>
> Indeed.
> Actually, this works parallel to english: you say "kiss MY ass", not "kiss ME ass".
> [that's what {Sa'HutwIj HIchop} literally means "My butt, bite me."]
>
> And in case you were thinking of the prefix trick, this doesn't work.
> [e.g. {ghIchwIj HInob} "give me your nose"]
>
> I doubt that you can "bite me my ass" or so...
Actually, French works exactly this way:
"Tu m'as casse la tete" (Excuse my lack of accents; I'm dropping them because extended
ASCII messes up some people's email readers.)
Literally, "You broke (to) me the head". But notice that here, the direct object has a definite
article, not a possessive ("ma tete" would be the possessive). So if Klingon follows the
French pattern, we would see {jIHvaD Sa'Hut yIchop} or {Sa'Hut HIchop}, with no
possessives.
However, I think Klingon does not follow the French pattern. As someone else has already
pointed out with the {mInDu'wIj} example, body parts do seem to use the possessives in this
situation.
> Quvar.
-Sangqar
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