tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Nov 22 22:47:59 1996
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Re: KLBC:Statements for book
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>Date: Fri, 22 Nov 1996 06:16:10 -0800
>From: [email protected]
>
>Sutel writes me back:
><{qeqmeH Suv} is a sentence which means "he fights in order to <practice."
>It is NOT a noun. There is no noun {Suv}. Be sure you <don't use this
>sentence as one.
>
>That is correct Sutel however the word spar/sparring is not a noun. It is
>just used as such by many people. Spar is a verb. Sparring is practice
>fighting.
Not quite; SuStel's point remains important.
"Sparring" is actually a gerund. That's a verb-form that's used as a noun.
"Sparring is good for you," etc. "To spar" is an infinitive, which can
also be used as a noun. "To spar is to fight for self-improvement" (two
infinitives used as nouns there). Klingon doesn't have gerunds or
infinitives. The closest it comes is sentence-as-object constructions,
which use whole sentences. Or maybe -ghach'ed verbs (e.g. SuvtaHghach for
"the act/activity of continuous fighting." Note also that "qeq" is a noun,
too). This is a good example of why Klingon/English macaronic
constructions don't work well. In English we can say "When you're ready TO
FIGHT" using an infinitive. Klingon hasn't got an infinitive. How will
you replace "to fight" above with a Klingon word? "Suv"? No, that means
"he/she/it/they fight(s)." "to Suv"? Even worse. "SuvmeH"? Horrible
(when you're ready to in order that he fight???) The closest you can get
is to say "When you [are] bISuvrup", I suppose, but that won't even work in
all cases. Klingon words simply are not shaped right to be stuffed into
English sentences, except maybe as simple nouns. They don't fit the
grammar.
~mark
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