tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jan 30 10:59:04 2004

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Re: chay' vuDwIj vIjatlh, 'ej chay' ngoD vIjatlh?

David Trimboli ([email protected]) [KLI Member] [Hol po'wI']

From: "Steven Boozer" <[email protected]>

> lay'tel SIvten:
> > > my question is: how would a klingon then differentiate between stating
his
> > > opinion and stating a fact?  if the act of his stating it makes it his
> > > opinion, how does he state a fact?
>
> By using the Type 6 verb suffixes, especially {-law'} for an opinion and
> {-bej} for a fact.  (See below.)
[...]
> ngabwI':
> >I would drop the {'e'}, and simply say {'IH mara. vuDwIj(na') 'oH}
>
> Even simpler is {'IHlaw' mara}.  Okrand writes about {-law'} "it seems (to
> be), apparently, seemingly, I think that, I suspect that":
>
>    This suffix expresses any uncertainty on the speaker's part and may
>    even be thought of as meaning "I think" or "I suspect".   (TKD 40)

lay'tel SIvten's objection was that uncertainty and opinion are two
different things, and {-law'} is said to express uncertainty.  I agree.  It
is a valid suggestion that {-law'} may not refer to opinion.

'IHlaw' mara.
I'm not sure, but Mara may be beautiful.

NOT
It is my opinion that Mara is beautiful.

I believe (heh) that Klingons would typically express opinions without
qualifying them as such.

'IH mara.
Mara is beautiful.

Only if they need to explicitly mark it as an opinion would they do so:

'IH mara 'e' vInoH.
I judge Mara to be beautiful.

We hear one Klingon express his opinion in Conversational Klingon using a
tag question:

'IH, qar'a'?
It's beautiful, isn't it?


A lot of Klingon opinions are expressed in terms of what effect the
food/music/whatever has on the speaker (sometimes metaphorically), rather
than as a quality of the thing in question.

muDuQ QoQ.
The music stabs me.

mupIlmoH bom.
The song inspires me.

SuStel
Stardate 4081.3

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