tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jan 27 19:03:04 1995
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: De'wI' mughwI'
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: De'wI' mughwI'
- Date: Fri, 27 Jan 95 22:03:00 EST
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>; from "Alan Anderson" at Jan 25, 95 6:45 am
According to Alan Anderson:
>
> cha'Hu' lujlaw' yabwIj.
> wot tlha' vangwI' 'e' vISov.
> *subject* vImughlaHbe' 'e' muberghmoH.
QaQqu' mu'tlheghmeylIj, 'ach Hot "It frustrates me that...".
tlha' mu'tlhegh nIv:
*subject vImughlaHbe'mo' jIbergh.
bIyaj'a'? DIvI' Hol vIlo':
The pronoun {'e'} represents the previous sentence and is
always the OBJECT of the sentence in which it resides. It has
to be the OBJECT of the verb that follows it. You have used the
generic "it" to represent the "that", so the previous sentence
gets bounced from the object position to the SUBJECT position.
In other words, what is the "it" that frustrates you? Well,
it's the previous sentence, right? Bingo. You have just used a
"Sentence As Subject" contruction, and Klingon does not have
one. It only has a Sentence As Object construction. You went a
step too far. Don't feel too bad. It's a common error.
> chaq "potlh" vIlo''a'?
"Duy" Daqaq? chaq rap pabDuy "subject" je 'ej rap pabHevwI'
"object" je? mu' chu' vIchenmoH 'e' vIparqu'. qab mu'meyvam 'e'
vIHar. wejpuH.
> De'wI' muchwI' ja'lu'pu'.
> 'oH jiHvaD Daj.
This is complete gibberish. Try: {jIHvaD Daj 'oH.} WORD ORDER
IS IMPORTANT. OBJECT, VERB, SUBJECT. Except for law/puS, there
really are no exceptions. Most other words preceed the object
the vast majority of the time. You can get into the subtleties
of which of the before-the-object words come before which, but
you still don't change the order of the object, verb, subject
unit and you don't go stuffing words (except maybe noun
conjunctions and adjectivals) between them. Sometimes, it is
okay to put words after the subject, but not as often as
English speakers would commonly like.
Basically, English has a LOT of helping words to help you sort
out all kinds of optional word orders. Klingon doesn't. In
Klingon, if the words are in the wrong order, you will almost
never be understood.
> De' vISuq vIneH.
> nuqDaq mughwI' De' joq vInej?
jISovbe'. DuHmey law' DawIvlaH.
> 'Iv vItlhob?
> HIja'!
batlh Dajatlh 'ach jIrop 'ej jIbergh. DaH jISaHbe'.
> -- ghunchu'wI'
charghwI'
--
\___
o_/ \
<\__,\
"> | Get a grip.
` |