tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Aug 24 09:16:42 2006
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: KLBC: Klingon WOTD: lay' (verb)
> >>Klingon word: lay'
> >>Part of Speech: verb
> >>Definition: promise
> >>Antonyms: lay'Ha'
Voragh:
> > Used in canon:
> > not lay'Ha' tlhIngan
> > No Klingon ever breaks his word. TKW
Thorwald Peeters wrote:
>with the above sentence, is the possesional suffix {-Daj} *never*
>required, or just required in some cases?
{-Daj} is "his/her", but I understand your point. In this case the
question is moot since the verb {lay'Ha'} means "break one's word" (i.e.
"un-promise"). Indeed, {mu'} "word" is not even mentioned.
I've wondered myself whether using these suffixes is always required. In
Latin and Russian for example, possessive pronouns are usually omitted when
their use is - in the words of the grammar books - "obvious and
unremarkable": e.g. "the student raised (his) hand", "the woman stubbed
(her) toe", "I scratched (my) head", etc. Okrand almost always adds the
suffix (following English practice), but IIRC there are a few cases where
he doesn't.
These examples use a different construction:
butlh ghajbogh nuv'e' yIHo'.
Admire the person with dirt under his fingernails. [TKW]
(relative clause: "the person who has dirt-under-fingernails")
HeghDI' SuvwI' nargh SuvwI' qa'.
When a warrior dies, his spirit escapes. [TKW]
(repeats the noun {SuvwI'})
jonlu'meH wo'maj pop tIn law' Hoch tIn puS
Our Empire's highest bounty has been placed on his head. [ST5 notes]
(purpose clause "[in order] to capture [him]" followed by a law'/puS
formula"
loDHom jIHDI' qIrq qun vIqImchoH.
I've followed his history since I was a boy. [ST5 notes]
(uses the name: "Kirk's history")
But in this example the possessive pronoun is simply omitted:
'oy'naQ Dalo'be'chugh not nenghep lop puq.
If you don't use the painstik, the child will never celebrate
his Age of Ascension. [TKW]
("the child will never celebrate the Age of Ascension")
Now this may be what we're talking about, or it may just be a case of not
being able to use possessive pronouns on something intangible - the Age of
Ascension {nenghep} is a ceremony (or time of life), not an object.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons