tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Aug 08 07:41:04 1994
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: Adverbs, gerunds, participles, et al.
ghItlh Thornton Rose <[email protected]>
>1. How does one form adverbs? For example:
>Maltz eats his to'baj legs greedily.
No "easy" way. One might use /DataHvIS/ "while behaving like" with the
appropriate suffix, and an object modified by the appropriate
adjective.
nuv qur DataHvIS, to'baj 'uSDu'Daj Sop matlh.
While acting like a greedy person, Maltz ate his to'baj legs.
Or one could use /Da'bogh/.
to'baj 'uSDu'Daj Sop nuv qur Da'bogh matlh.
Maltz, who acts like a greedy person, eats his to'baj legs.
>2. How is "with" expressed in Klingon. (I thought there was an affix
>for it, but I can't find one.) For example:
>Maltz hit me with a rock.
This is one of my favorites. "With" has well over a dozen meanings in
English, according to the last dictionary I checked. Two common ones
are "accomapnies" and "using". For the former, there is /tlhej/, for
the latter, /lo'/. My favorite way to express your sentence would be
muqIpta' nagh lo'bogh matlh.
Maltz, who uses a rock, hit me (deliberately).
Two other ways are:
nagh lo'taHvIS, muqIpta' matlh.
While using a rock, Maltz hit me (delib.).
muqIpmeH, nagh matlh lo'ta'.
In order to hit me, Maltz used a rock (delib.).
>3. How does one express gerunds and participles (verbal forms used as
>adjectives), in Klingon?
Creatively.
>For example:
>a) Screaming in fear, Maltz ran to his quarters.
-taHvIS works here:
jachtaHvIS, pa'majDaq qetta' matlh yoHHa'.
While screaming, fearful (lit. uncourageous) Maltz ran to his quarters.
and also -bogh, as in the "4000 throats" phrase:
pa'majDaq qetta' jachbogh matlh yoHHa'.
Fearful Matlz, who screams, ran to his quarters.
>b) Eating chocolate is Maltz's job.
One might handle this case specifically with
yuch Sop 'e' 'oH matlh Qu''e'.
Maltz's duty is that he eats chocolate.
(I may be incorrect in my phrasing here.)
>But, I couldn't think of anything for gerunds that wasn't awkard. Consider:
>SuvtaHghach - fighting (the act of).
What's so "awkward" about this? It's always been my opinion that
-ghach is a general gerund marker. I happen to be, though, in the
"liberal -ghach" camp here on the list, and so would just say
"Suvghach". Some people on the list like to avoid -ghach whenever
possible, and rephrase their sentences to use the verb as a verb.
>4. How does one express infinitives? (Would they just be relegated to
>participle forms?) For example:
Infinitives are "verbs as nouns" and thus are handled as one handles gerunds.
>Maltz likes to eat chocolate.
yuch Sopmo', tIv matlh.
Beacuse he eats chocolate, Maltz "enjoys".
This works if one can use "tIv" intransitively in Klingon.
yuch Sop 'e' tIv matlh.
Maltz enjoys that he eats chocolate.
-QumpIn 'avrIn
--
Erich Schneider [email protected] http://tamsun.tamu.edu/~ers0925