tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Mar 30 19:45:55 1996
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Re: Nice picture & KLBC
- From: Steven Boozer <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Nice picture & KLBC
- Date: Sat, 30 Mar 96 21:45:11 CST
ghItlh Daniel:
>>Ha'DIbahmay meQ SoptaH, tera'ngan.
'ach jang ghunchu'wI':
>Can we use {meQ} adjectivally like this? I always thought "burn" was a
>transitive verb, as in "burn the house", but I suppose "the house burns"
>is just as likely. However, we've usually restricted the adjectival use
>to verbs listed as "be (something)", and {meQ} isn't given as "be on fire."
>I'd say it as {Ha'DIbaHmey meQlu'pu'bogh DaSoptaH} if {meQ} is transitive,
>or {meQpu'bogh Ha'DIbaHmey DaSoptaH} if it's intransitive.
Indeed we can; cf. Conversational Klingon, when the Klingon waitress sneers:
Ha'DIbaHmey meQ Sop 'e' tIv tera'nganpu'
"Terrans enjoy eating burnt animals."
Apparently, an idiomatic use of the verb {meQ}. Thus our knowledge of the
language's subtleties grows -- bit by bit. (Also, note the absence of
any unnecessary Type 7 aspectual suffix for habitual actions or simple,
descriptive statements of fact.)
Steven
(anxiously waiting for his copy of Hamlet!)
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Steven L. Boozer Let the gods so speed me, as I love
[email protected] The name of honour more than I fear death.
University of Chicago Library -- Wm. Shakespeare (Julius Caesar)
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