tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri May 27 01:28:07 1994
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more on stylistics
>From: [email protected]
>Date: Thu, 26 May 94 17:47:51 EDT
>1) {...'e' Qub} : "I think that..."
>This is extremely idiomatic to English and a few related languages, am I
>right? A much more acceptable way to render this would be {-law'}. TKD *says*
>{-law'} is used to mean "I think" or "I suspect". The verb {Qub} is probably
>closer to describing cranial activity. My usage of {Qub} would follow "think
>*about*".
>{tlheDlaw'pu'} "I think she has left."
I agree that {Qub} means to me more like "cerebrate", "ruminate", "think
about", than the idiomatic English use of it for "believe", but I wouldn't
come down on not using "-law'" so hard. "-law'" is definitely a good,
concise way of getting the concept across, but I'd agree with nick that
"'e' vIHar" also works well. Sometimes the weighiness of a longer
construction gets points across better, sometimes you just feel like it.
But "Har" is certainly better than "Wub" for this usage.
>2) {...'e' vItul} : "I hope that..."
>This bothers me not because I find it idomatic to the wrong language, but
>because {-jaj} expresses this so much more effectively and efficiently. Of
>course, (doubting I need to say this:), just because the optative mood is
>more often rendered with the verb "hope" in English does not mean anything as
>far as Klingon goes.
>{DaHjaj SISjaj} "I hope it rains today."
Here I'm less in agreement with you. Maybe I think of "-jaj" still as too
formalistic a construction, for use in toasts and prayers and well-wishing,
but I still like "'e' vItul" in a lot of places. Note that "-jaj" really
only works well when it's the speaker's hope. "The captain hoped the enemy
would die" really has to be "Hegh jagh 'e' tul HoD". Somehow it seems a
little weird to demand that this construction totally change just if the
captain happens to be the speaker.
>Guido#1, Leader of All Guidos
~mark