'about' or 'concerning' as a phrase
How would you say something like ‘lies concerning Klingons’ as a noun phrase or ‘he lies about Klingons’ as a sentence? I thought of using Daq but that seems weird- “tlhInganpu’Daq nep” as “he lies in the area of Klingons” is ambiguous with ‘he lies near Klingons’ and just feels wrong.
Is this something that should just be two sentences like this:
nep. tlhInganpu’ qeQ ngeb De’na’Daj. “He lies. His obviously false information aims at Klingons.”
I tried to simplify that as “tlhInganpu’Daq ngeb De’ qeQ ghaH” but I am unsure- does the Daq make clear he’s lying about Klingons, not *to* Klingons?
Also, if I just want the noun “lie”, can I just use ‘nep’, or do I need to nominalize it as nepghach? vItqoq “so called truth” comes to mind as well in the absence of a pure negator noun suffix. “ngeb De'” as ‘false information’ perhaps?
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You’re correct that you shouldn’t use {-Daq}, which is only used for physical locations.
The verb {bop} means “be about, be concerned with”:
{nep ghaH; tlhInganpu’ bop} “He lies about Klingons” [literally, He lies; it (i.e. the topic) is about Klingons].
{tlhInganpu’ bopbogh nepwI’ mu’tlheghmey’e’} “lies about Klingons” [lit. liar’s sentences that are about Klingons]
There are a few errors in your example sentences. {qeQ} means “fecal matter”. {Qeq} means “aim”, but probably refers to literally aiming a weapon at a target.
A verb used like an adjective comes after the noun modified: {De’ ngeb} means “fake information”.
I wouldn’t use {-ghach} here since {-ghach} forms are generally perceived as awkward and should stylistically be a last resort.
Thank you!
Yes, I meant {Qeq} as ‘aim’ in the more general sense of ‘be directed at’ but I think you’re right that it’s more literal. (and whoops I did mess up the Q/q)
I’ll have to think more about implicit topics and topic pronouns; those didn’t occur to me here.
