tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Sep 05 10:09:45 1996
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Re: TKD 3rd ed. (was Re: nuqneH)
- From: "Mark E. Shoulson" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: TKD 3rd ed. (was Re: nuqneH)
- Date: Thu, 5 Sep 1996 13:09:43 -0400 (EDT)
- In-reply-to: <[email protected]> (message from DarkViper on Wed, 4 Sep 1996 14:59:04 -0700)
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>Date: Wed, 4 Sep 1996 14:59:04 -0700
>From: Dark Viper <[email protected]>
>At 08:01 PM 9/3/96 -0700, Mark E. Shoulson wrote:
>>>--Dark Viper-----------------------------
>>>'ut 'oH vuv'e'
>>
>>This is an easy error to make, but you should watch for it. "'ut" is a
>>verb. In English, we use the copula ("to be") to apply adjectives to nouns
>>in a sentence (respect IS necessary), but in Klingon the "adjectives"
>>really *are* verbs. Pronouns-as-verbs really indicate existence at a place
>>or equation between two nouns. "Respect is necessary" translates as "'ut
>>vuv."
>But from what I interpreted in TKD, is that it is okay sometimes to use a
>verb as a noun -- maybe this is one of the times it isn't? Because that IS a
>semi-confusing part of TKD for me.
Well, the problem is that TKD points out that some verbs also happen to be
nouns, but explicitly says it's not known that you can always do this
(indeed, some evidence would suggest you can't, e.g. Hurgh which is a verb
for "be dark" and a noun for "pickle" [though they could simply be
homophones], and "tay" which is a verb for "be civilized", but the noun
"civilization" is "tayqeq"). The feeling of the KLI is to err on the side
of caution, and not invent nouns where we don't know there are any. So a
verb is a verb until Okrand says it's a noun.
Moreover, even if "'ut" and "vuv" were both nouns, how would you be
intending this? "respect is necessity"? Or maybe taking "'ut" to mean not
the concept of necessity but a thing which is a necessity, "respect is a
necessity"? That's kind of roundabout, and noun-centric. You have verbs
already, making them nouns and then using a pronoun to equate them is
pretty convoluted.
~mark
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