tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Aug 08 12:10:39 1994
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Re: Adverbs, gerunds, participles, et al.
ghItlh charghwI':
>> >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.
>I don't know about that. It kind of works, but it sounds very
>indirect. Maltz doesn't just act like a greedy person. He IS a
>greedy person, when he eats his to'baj legs. (But then, aren't
>we all?)
Actually, it just hit me on the head. How about
qurtaHvIS, to'baj 'uSDu'Daj Sop matlh.
While he was being greedy, Maltz ate his to'baj legs.
Are Klingons existentialists? That is, is a Klingon's "being"
determined by what they "do"? Can we say Maltz "is" a greedy person,
rather than that he "acts like" a greedy person? The point of this is
that I was trying to avoid using a pronoun-as-"to be", and /Da/ seemed
most appropriate.
>> 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.
>
>Why not put {-taHvIS} on the OTHER verb? To me, it makes the
>whole thing simpler and more to the point.
To me, _that_ seems too "indirect". To me, the main focus of the
sentence is Maltz's eating; to move the eating into a subordinate
clause shifts too much emphasis into his greedy nature.
>> >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.
>>
>> 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.).
>
>I strongly prefer this last version. Why? Well, I can add to
>either of the other two versions to defeat the intended
>meaning, thusly:
>"Maltz, who uses a rock to make interesting sounds on his
>forehead, hit me (deliberately) with his hand." That is a
>perfectly sensible sentence.
>"While using a rock to make interesting sounds on his forehead,
>Maltz hit me (deliberately) with his hand." That is also a
>perfectly sensible sentence.
But, as I can imagine Worf saying, "we are not talking about foreheads
here."
>See my point? "In order to hit me with his hand, Maltz used a
>rock to make interesting sounds on his forehead." That is total
>gibberish. Why?
>
>There is a purpose link between the {-meH} verb and the main
>verb, while there is merely a temporal link between the
>{-taHvIS} verb and the main verb, and there is a link between
>the {-bogh} verb and its associated NOUN, but not necessarily
>with the main verb. You want to link hitting with using such
>that one is the purpose of the other. The purpose of using the
>rock is to hit.
Again, I feel this places too much emphasis on using the rock and too
little on the hitting. I also realize that the purposive link is not
extremely strongly indicated by the other forms. I prefer -bogh or
-taHvIS because (a) they put the emphasis where I think it should be
put and (b) I can see either being a rote form indicating the
instrumental. (As, in some sense, "with" is in English ... imagine
someone who knew only the accompanitive sense of "with" trying to
interpret the original English phrase: "'Maltz hits me, accompanied by
a rock.' nuqjatlh, tera'ngan?")
>> >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.
>What? I was under the distinct impression that Klingon didn't
>have infinitives.
It doesn't. However, in English the infinitive is used as a noun form
of a verb. "I like to speak Klingon." "I like speaking Klingon." The
first an infinitive, the second a gerund. Thus, one translates an
English infinitive into Klingon the same ways one translates gerunds:
recasting, -ghach, etc. "tlhIngan Hol vIjatlhDI', jIQuch."
-QumpIn 'avrIn
--
Erich Schneider [email protected] http://tamsun.tamu.edu/~ers0925