tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Sep 16 07:44:22 1994
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Re: introductions
- From: Niall Hosking <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: introductions
- Date: Fri, 16 Sep 1994 15:43:51 +0100 (BST)
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]> from "William H. Martin" at Sep 14, 94 02:09:14 pm
>
>
> According to R.B Franklin:
> >
> >
> > >>Is that a leveq in your pocket or are you glad to see me?
> >
> > I suspect the Original Klingon version of Mae West's translation was
> > something like:
> > HIch 'oH'a' Dochvetlh'e' ngaSbogh yopwaHlIj pagh cholegh 'e' bIquch'a' neH?
> >
> > yoDtargh
> you lost it.
>
> {'e'} as a pronoun is always the object of the verb that
> follows it. {quch} means "kidnap". {Quch} means "be happy",
> which is intransitive, so {'e'} cannot be its object. Replace
> everything after {pagh} with {... choleghmo' bIQuch'a' neH?}
> and I think you'll have what you were after.
>
> The idea is that {'e'} represents the entire earlier sentence
> and stands as the direct object of the second verb, as in
> {bI'IH 'e' vIQub}. "I think that you are beautiful." See? (Who
> says you can't sweet talk in Klingon?) The word "that" in the
> English stands for the entire other sentence. "You are
> beautiful. I think that."
>
> In your example, it falls apart: "You see me. You are happy
> that." It doesn't work that way. This is another example of how
> words in English can be used in more different ways than in
> Klingon. You were thinking, "You are happy that you see me." In
> this case, the word "that" is not really the direct object of
> "happy". Actually, I'd have a rough time explaining WHAT the
> word "that" is doing in that sentence. (Do I hear the drip of
> salivating linguists?)
So what happens in constructions like "Shut up!":
{bijatlh 'e' yimev} ?
As far as I can see, it says: You speak, you stop that.
How does the English verb "stop" work here? It seems to have no direct
object - it refers to another verb. Not an identical case, but one that
is similarly undefined by your example.
>
> Go to it, linguists. I'm a Klingonist, not an Englishist.
Do Physicists count? (And I don't mean fundamental particles.)
>
> charghwI'
>
>
--
{qSeroHS vayn}
[email protected]
'Practise random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.'