tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Dec 18 14:33:31 1995

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Re: {-meH} and {Sov} (was Re: KLBC: starting right back...)

~mark says:

>Listen to CK, in the
>scene where the tourist is going through customs on Qo'noS.  They ask
>"Qo'noSDaq vay' DaSov'e'?" (Do you known anyone on Kronos?) and he answers
>"ghobe'.  Qo'noSDaq vay' vISovbe'" (No, I don't know anyone on Kronos).
>Note that this incidentally doesn't use your proposed "-'e'" to reduce the
>scope of "-Daq" to apply only to the "vay'" (which it obviously does), and
>incidentally also tells us that in Klingon you don't use double-negatives.
>But note that it uses "Sov", and NOT "ghov."
>
>~mark

charghwI' adds:

This may also seem to be an exception to my earlier post saying that 
locatives apply only to verbs. It seems that {Qo'noSDaq} is applied to 
{vay'}. I disagree. I still think it applies to {Sov}. I think the sentence 
is much in the style of saying:

wa'Hu' vay' vISovbe'.

Yesterday, I didn't know anybody.

I'm not saying that I don't know the yesterday people. I'm creating a time 
setting for the verb. When yesterday happened, I didn't know anybody.

Qo'noSDaq vay' vISovbe'.

On Qo'noS, I don't know anybody. When I am on Qo'noS, I don't know anybody. 
I am giving a location setting for the verb, just like the time setting for 
the verb I add with {wa'Hu'}. I'm not saying that I don't know the Qo'noS 
people. I'm saying that on Qo'noS, I don't know anybody. When the subject 
does the action at this location, the subject doesn't know anybody.

I see most Type 9 verb clauses much the same way or Type 5 modified nouns. 
You set the action of the verb. It is the Klingon way. Create the 
environment for the action, tell who or what it happens to, then describe 
the action and finally tell who or what did it. That's kind of an overly 
abridged nutshell, but that's the basic idea. I think locatives ALWAYS 
modify the verb that follows them. This is occasionally ambiguous simply 
because a locative can appear before more than one verb...

But I digress...

charghwI'

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