tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Apr 20 22:53:19 1997

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RE: KLBC: qay'?



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From: 	[email protected] on behalf of Q'ISt'ova (Eliseo d'Annunzio, Esq.)
Sent: 	Sunday, April 20, 1997 9:37 PM
To: 	Multiple recipients of list
Subject: 	Re: KLBC: qay'?

> > > 	Can "qay'" be used adjectivally?  "Problematic" or something > like 
that?
> > 
> > Good question. Since it is listed as a "to be" type verb, I
> > would expect that it could be used as such, though I'd have a
> > little trouble translating it smoothly into English.
> > "Problematic" would probably be the polite way to translate it,
> 
> I guess the only problem is to find out whether we can string a verb with
> qay, eg. "Qongqay" for say "sleepily".

What are you talking about?

> Though I feel we may have to put a
> restriction on how viable this logic is. Verbs like "qip" (to hit) and
> "legh" (to see) would not follow the same run of logic, else we'd end up
> with:
> 
> qipqay (hittingly, which does not make sense...)
> leghqay (seeingly, which also does not make sense...)

Are we talking about the same thing?  The verb {qay'} means "be a problem."  
If I say {jIqay'}, it means "I am a problem."  If I say {qay' HeghDaj}, it 
means "his death is a problem."  What has this got to do with illegal verb 
compounds?

SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97303.9


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