tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jul 29 02:29:13 1996

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Instruments

  Someone a few days ago (sorry, I forget who) said that he thought that (if X
is a verb) {X-wI'} is the agent only, not the instrument also as we have been
thinking. TKD says that an {X-wI'} is "(a) one who is X [presumably if X is an
adjective-verb], (b) one who does X, (c) thing which does X".
  Fortunately the alternative parsing "my sentient act of X'ing" which some of
them seem to have, is not sensibly possible.
  With ships and independently operating devices, perhaps the boundary between
agent and instrument can get unclear.
  In TKD I have found a quantity of {X-wI'} nouns where the verb {X} is listed
also, including some tools for X-ing with:-

    (AP = alternative parsing)
  Hergh QaywI' N [hypo|pneumatic hypo] (AP medicine transferrer)
  HoS choHwI' N transtator (AP power changer)
  HotlhwI' N scanner
  joqwI' N flag
  jorwI' N explosive
  lengwI' N rover (grammar term)
  lingwI' N generator
  mughwI' N translator
  mupwI' N hammer
  nejwI' N probe
  rIHwI' N energizer
  So'wI' N cloaking device
  tepqengwI' N cargo carrier
  tuj muvwI' N thermo-suture (AP heat joiner)
  woj choHwI' N reactor (AP radiation changer)

    With these four, the verbs that they are derived from are not in TKD:-
  (1) chamwI' N technician
  (2) chu'wI' N trigger  (chu' V = "he is new")
  (3) De'wI' N computer
  (4) HerghwI' N [hypo|pneumatic hypo]  (Hergh N = "medicine")

  (1) There is a pop music song containing "... it's not your Durchsprung
durch Technique you know ...": someone posted a Klingon translation of it
once; in it (as well as using several verbs unaltered as nouns = "act or
condition of X'ing") he ventured to invent the word *{cham} N = "technique",
probably extracted from {chamwI'}.
  (2) Also means "someone or something who is new", as {chu'} = "he is new".
  (4) Looks like *{Hergh} is, or once was, a verb "administer medicine to".

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