tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Dec 04 08:39:14 1995
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intransitive verbs
- From: [email protected]
- Subject: intransitive verbs
- Date: Mon, 04 Dec 1995 11:35:28 -0500
yoDtargh writes:
>>>>>
Intransitive verbs are verbs which don't take objects.
Any Klingon verb whose translation is "be something" , is intransitive.
[...]
Intransitive verbs are are verbs which describe a state or quality, and
they are the only verbs which can be used as adjectives. (Sec. 4.4.)
<<<<<
Half right. Being intransitive isn't enough. Verbs like yIt 'walk' or Qong
'sleep' take no objects, but they don't describe states or qualities. You
can say mang yoH 'a brave soldier', but not *mang Qong for 'a sleeping
soldier' (the star is a linguistic symbol for an ungrammatical construction).
You have to say Qongbogh mang, lit. 'a soldier who is sleeping'.
>>>>>
However, you can make intransitive verbs become transitive, by adding
{-moH} or {-choHmoH}.
tera'ngan QuchchoHmoH. (He/she/it causes the Terran to become
happy.)
DaSmeywIj vItInchoHmoH. (I make my boots become big; I enlarge my
boots.)
verenganpu' QIpmoH HIqvam. (This liquor makes Ferengis stupid; This
liquor stupefies Ferengis.)
<<<<<
More precisely, -moH makes a verb causative. Not all transitive verbs
are causative, e.g., qIp 'hit'; in fact, most aren't. It happens that in English
a lot of verbs have an intransitive meaning and also a (transitive)
causative meaning with no change of form: grow, shrink, slide, heat
(up), wake (up), cool, walk (a dog [specialized causative]; but not *"walk
the kids" for 'make the kids walk'). But many don't: sleep, wonder, travel,
ache, fall.
tlhIngan veQbeq marqem la'Hom : Subcommander marqem,
Klingon Sanitation Corps
Heghbej ghIHmoHwI'pu'! : Death to litterbugs!
Mark A. Mandel
Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 965-5200
320 Nevada St. : Newton, Mass. 02160, USA : [email protected]