tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jan 04 15:08:31 1996

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

Re: Verbs as Objects

According to David Wood:
... 
>      The first attempt, [jIghItlh wIvoqbe' Hoch jIh je], was supposed to read as
> "Even I don't trust what I write." Perhaps I should instead have written 
> [jIghItlh 'e' wIvoqbe' Hoch jIH je]. The correction from charghwI' translates as
> "Even I don't trust my writings," which, while correct, goes against the 
> "verb-based" nature of Klingon as I've seen it discussed here.

Unfortunately, what you just wrote means "Even I don't trust
that I write." In other words, the fact that you write is the
thing which you are doubting. You are saying nothing about the
CONTENTS of your writing. If you really want to use the verb
"write" instead of the noun, then it is still the result of
your writing which you don't trust, so it would be more like:

mu'mey vIghItlhbogh wIvoqbe' Hoch jIH je.

We all don't trust the words which I write.

>      The second I probably shouldn't have tried for two reasons. I wanted to say
> "It is a good day to fight dirty," in a way to most closely mirror the classic 
> mock-Klingonism "It is a good day to die."

First, I have to say that I have always hated that "Today is a
good day to die" line. From a Klingon perspective, it stinks.
There are dozens of posts made on the topic. Perhaps hundreds.
I'm fried on it.

Meanwhile, if you insist, think of it as:

In order that we fight dirty, today is good.

Or perhaps better:

If we fight dirty, today becomes good.

Or:

If we fight dirty, we always enjoy the event.

That's a very Klingon statment which makes more sense in
Klingon than English IMHO.

>      English accepts all manner of verb clauses as objects: participles, 
> gerunds, and that third thing which I can't remember now. Klingon (as practiced 
> by the purists, anyway) seems just a bit intractable when it comes to phrases 
> pointing at others.

There are several options, like relative clauses (see -bogh),
Sentence-As-Object (but remember that it is the action and not
the subject or object of the action represented by 'e') and in
some limited instances, there's always {-ghach}. 

> -- David Wood, Freelance Computer Consultant
> ("Freelance" is just a cheesy way of saying "Irregularly Employed")

charghwI'
-- 

 \___
 o_/ \
 <\__,\
  ">   | Get a grip.
   `   |

Back to archive top level