tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Sep 20 06:50:18 1996

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juHHomwIj pong



juHHomwIjvaD *reHpa* vIpong. jIreHmeH pa' 'oH, ej reH pa' 'oH 
tIqwIj'e'.

On the use of the verb {pong}, given the new canon, I once again 
suggest my earlier guess at the verb's use should be valid. I 
initially guessed it would be okay to say:

charghwI' mupong tlhInganpu'.

The new canon suggests it would be:

jIHvaD charghwI' pong tlhInganpu'.

Meanwhile, we have canon suggesting that the following two 
sentences are equivalent:

jIHvaD taj yInob.
taj HInob.

My personal spin on this sort of thing is that the second 
example only works if the indirect object and the direct object 
are not of the same person.

A key feature of the Klingon language is its minimal quantity of 
redundency. That's why plural suffixes are not necessary for 
words known to be plural, as in {loS yIH vIHoH.} While {loS 
yIHmey vIHoH,} is not incorrect, it is also not necessary.

If you have one grammatical piece of evidence indicating that a 
noun is plural, you don't need a plural suffix. Similarly, if 
the prefix indicates a different person for the object than the 
noun in the posion of the direct object, all examples so far 
make the prefix-related object to be indirect.

That gives us two different ways to indicate indirect object. 
One is the explicit rule in TKD appendix that we can use {-vaD} 
on the indirect object, making it one of those nouns that goes 
before the direct object. The other way to indicate indirect 
object, for which TKD offers no rule, but for which we do have 
canon {ghIchwIj Dabochchugh vaj ghIchlIj qanob,} is by this 
disagreement between the explicit direct object and the person 
of the object indicated by the prefix.

So, if in our one canon use of the verb {pong}, the ditransitive 
English verb becomes a Klingon verb with the direct object being 
the name and the indirect object being the entity named, I argue 
that since the direct object will always be third person (the 
name given), so long as the indirect object is NOT third person, 
you should be able to use the verb {pong} according to my 
original guess:

charghwI' mupong tlhInganpu'.

I could also say:

charghwI' vIponglu'.

(Heh, heh.) maQoch 'e' vIpIH.

Meanwhile, I don't, since Klingons are the only ones who call me 
charghwI'.

In our canon example, note that the entity named was third 
person, so Okrand could not use the grammar I suggest, and given 
that the entity named is the indirect object, I, too, would have 
suggested:

'oHvaD juHqo' pong tlhInganpu'.

pItlh.

charghwI'




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