tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Nov 07 11:20:53 1994

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Re: KLBC: Does this sentence make sense?

According to METEU, THE MIGHTY LLAMA:
> 
> 
> 	Hi, 
> 	  I was just wondering if this sentence is proper.  Here it is:
> 
> puqmey lIngtaHbogh targhmey pImHa' chIjtaHghachlIj

Your navigation is undifferent. Targs which produce puppies.

I'm being a bit of a stickler here. One of the areas Okrand has
failed to fully address is the issue of transitivity. Some of
us equate the transitivity of verbs in Klingon to the strict
interpretation of transitivity in the English words in TKD,
hence {pIm} means "be different". It doesn't mean "be different
FROM". Krankor, whose opinion I respect highly, interprets this
differently and thinks it is perfectly FINE to tag an object on
{pIm}. This certainly makes English to Klingon translation much
easier. My problem is that an extention of this results in far
more vague and ambiguous Klingon sentences, so I stick to a
stricter interpretation until Okrand unfolds more details on
this issue.

I say, "A and B are different", rather than "A is different B".
Consider that a respected opinion, but nothing more than an
opinion, and an even MORE respected opinion thinks the opposite
is true. Basically, it is unresolved, involving opinions other
than just Krankor and myself. It is one of those things that
might have us bashing foreheads together for years to come...

Meanwhile, in your sentence, it looks far more like a job for
{rur} instead of {pImHa'}. What do YOU think?

> 	Now I have a few questions.  Can I use -ghach to make a partiple like
> that (navigating)? 

That appears to be one of the major reasons this suffix exists.
It can be unfortunately ambiguous sometimes, but this is
definitely an accepted use of it.

> Is it possible (or useful) to use the suffex -moH on the
> verb vemmoH or is it redundant?

It is almost certainly not acceptable. In most instances, there
are easy alternatives:

SuvwI' yIvemmoH 'e' qara'.

"I order you to wake the soldier." Note that it could be argued
that {ra'} is a verb of speech and so does not require {'e'},
but in this instance, it could be interpreted as a verb of
action, rather than speech, and the {'e'} is a verbal cue that
I'm not mispronouncing {qar'a'}. (My intent is a statement, not
a question.)

> Is there any way to say something like
> ' someone cannot sleep ' ' QonglaHlu'be' '?

No. {-laH} and {-lu'} are both type 5 suffixes. Better would be:

QonglaHbe' vay'.

> Thank you for your help.
> 		
> 					Joe Schelin

It's what I'm here for. Good questions, by the way.

charghwI'

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