tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Feb 17 04:31:01 1994

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Word used by Marnen



>From: [email protected] (Nick NICHOLAS)
>Date: Thu, 17 Feb 94 13:52:16 EDT

>Hu'tegh! nuq ja' Mark E. Shoulson jay'?

>=Now, there *is* some ambiguity between "a great warrior knows when he has
>=finished speaking" and "When does a great warrior know he has finished
>=speaking?", namely, whether the "ghorgh" applies to the main clause or the
>=initial subordinate one.  Bummer, huh.  

>Um, actually, while ambiguity is omnipresent and acceptable in Klingon,
>it isn't present here:

>ghorgh jatlh rIntaH vaj 'e' Sov vaj

>vs.

>jatlh rIntaH vaj, ghorgh 'e' Sov vaj? (She has spoken --- when does the warrior
>know this?)

*blink*.  Ohyeah. That's right.  OK.

>=deal with it.  We have the same problem with relative clauses as objects
>=and "-vaD" or "-Daq" or "-mo'" words at the front of them: "DujDaq puq
>=DaqIppu'bogh vIlegh" could mean "I see the child which you hit on the ship"
>=or "on the ship, I see the child which you hit" (i.e. the seeing or hitting
>=may have happened on the ship).  We cope.

>Although there's a third interpretation, "I see the ship where you hit the
>child", which we reject.

Yeah, yeah, this ship-in-which-I-fled problem.  I wanted to leave that one
out of this mess for a change.

~mark



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