tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Dec 08 11:48:28 1996

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Re: Rules... Transitive vs Intransitive

ja' qeyloS:
>oops... I agree that some words don't make any sense when used the wrong
>way. My point was that (forgetting transitive and intransitive) if it does
>make sense then I don't see any thing wrong or it being referenced in TKD.

It might make sense after it has been translated into English, but that
doesn't mean it makes sense in Klingon.  (Yes, some people actually *do*
read tlhIngan Hol without translating everything first...)  During my
stint as BG, I got a lot of experience reading some very ungrammatical
sentences whose literal translations actually made sense, but that was
only because of trivial similarities between certain words in English.
For instance, describing an "open place" as *{poSmoHlan} is just plain
*wrong*, though the translation appears to make sense -- in English, at
least.  I wonder how it comes out in German...

>Again, not being a smarta**, whether not {muv} is transitive or not means
>little if it DOES make sense. May it does being a grammarian but I don't
>want to add rules that don't exist. If that the way things really work like
>I said I'll live with it, maybe I'm being too simple but I do like
>simplicity after all.

The difference is that "join (something)" and "join (two things together)"
are separate concepts.  The first means to become a part of something else,
and the second means to cause two things to become connected.  We can't
rely only on the meanings of the word in English; we have to see out other
clues to exactly which meaning is being represented.  In the case of {muv},
we also know that {muvmoH} is "recruit".  That implies to me that {muv} is
really "become part of (something)".

-- ghunchu'wI'

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