tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jan 03 02:02:19 1996
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KLBC: several questions
- From: Marc Ruehlaender <[email protected]>
- Subject: KLBC: several questions
- Date: Wed, 3 Jan 96 11:02:46 MET
- Mailer: Elm [revision: 70.85]
I recently received a very valuable package, containing
the back issues of HolQeD and the tapes. Now I have some
questions, I'd like to have answered.
In HolQeD 2:2, our friendly grammarian, Cpt. Krankor,
considers the phrase
QamtaHvIS Hegh QaQ law' tortaHvIS yIn QaQ puS
Death while standing is better than life while kneeling.
In order to avoid sentences in the A or B slot, he
analyses Hegh and yIn as nouns. However, usually
QamtaHvIS Hegh would mean "while death is standing",
or doesn't it? So this use of -taHvIS to form attributive
phrases is new to me. To see if I got it right, then,
are the following correct?
QaQ QamtaHvIS Hegh. qab tortaHvIS yIn
Death while (one is) standing is good.
Life while (one is) kneeling is bad.
Do'Ha' yInpu'pa' Hegh.
Death before one has completed living is unfortunate.
yonmoH yInta'DI' Hegh.
Death as soon as one has accomplished living is satisfying.
Next question: on CK I hear
Ha'DIbaHmey meQ Sop 'e' tIv tera'nganpu'
Terrans like to eat burnt animals.
If this is correct, then meQ "to burn" can also
be used as meQ "be burnt"?
And could someone hint me to the missing words in
??? De'vetlh that is classified information
??? Sop, tera'ngan Bon Appetit, Terran
I can't make anything out of what I hear...
(at this place I need to say, I'm not very happy
with Okrand's pronounciation, especially of r,gh,rgh)
Last question (for now): in HolQeD 3:2 our friendly
grammarian, Cpt. Krankor, examines the usage of "it"
in English and how this carries over to tlhIngan Hol.
He is especially considering a usage, which is described as
the grammatical subject of a clause of which the
actual subject is another clause or phrase following
this sure sounds like the dreaded "sentence-as-subject"
to me. He concludes that Klingon may have this usage but
that what is the subject in English becomes the object of
the Klingon phrase, e.g.
jaH neH ghaH 'e' teH
HE wants to go. (something) is true that.
It is true that he wants to go.
I think this is weird. My personal opinion is, one would
have to say something like
jaH neH ghaH. teH mu'tleghvam.
As those kind of constructions would occur quite often,
and what else could be the subject of the second sentence
other than something similar to mu'tlhghvam, one might
suggest it can be elided (as our friendly grammarian,
Cpt. Krankor, argues for peD = peD muD in the same article).
Thus I'd say:
jaH neH ghaH. teH.
On the other hand, I don't see that TKD forbids the
"sentence-as-subject" structure. It just says that
'e' and net can't be used for it (except in the way
our friendly grammarian, Cpt. Krankor, suggests).
This means maybe we can say jaH neH ghaH teH, or we
have to wait for the correct pronoun to use
(jaH neH ghaH teH ZZZ). I need your input on this...
qatlho'
HomDoq
--
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Marc Ruehlaender [email protected]
Universitaet des Saarlandes, Saarbruecken, Germany
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