tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Apr 27 22:41:17 1997
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RE: KLBC: Some Sayings
- From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: KLBC: Some Sayings
- Date: Mon, 28 Apr 97 05:22:14 UT
[email protected] on behalf of Jim LeMaster wrote:
> AAH! I see! The mo' refers to the word it is, not any associated. I
> tried to use it adjectively as 'boundaries due to . . . ."
>
> Would (your dislike of veH aside) this work:
>
> ghot SovnIS veHmeyDaj laHmeymo'Daj.
> A person should know his/her boundaries caused by/due to his/her
> abilities.
You're not quite getting the idea behind {-mo'}. A noun, with {-mo'} at the
end (it must be the end; {-mo'} is a Type 5 noun suffix, and cannot be
followed by suffixes like {-Daj}), becomes the cause of the action. The
person's abilities do not cause the knowing, which is the main verb of the
sentence.
may'mo' jISuv.
Because of the battle, I fought.
Why did I fight? Because of the battle. Nouns with {-mo'} on them should
always come immediately *before* the OVS phrase.
As section 3 of TKD tells us, nouns with Type 5 suffixes cannot be used
directly before other nouns to use them in the Noun-Noun construction.
> > > jIratlh ghotvetlh reH jIratlhbogh.
> > > I remain that person which I will always remain.
> > >
> > But grammatically, remember to check your verb prefixes. Some of these
have
> > objects, but you've used the no-object prefix!
> >
> > I don't know that {ratlh} is a transitive word in Klingon. It means
> > "remain,
> > stay," and has been used that way in canon. It doesn't mean "remain as."
> >
> > > jIratlh tuq l'maSto'r Y'jImbo puqloD warDIn.
> > > I remain Yojimbo, son of Warden, of the House LeMaster.
> >
> > I *know* you cannot use {ratlh} like this!
> >
> I checked with a higher authority, my wife the English professor, and
> she says that remain and stay are intransitive verbs and have no
> object. Which agrees with my thoughts on {ratlh} and why I used jI-.
> Realize, I am a chamwI' in real life and am often quite literal minded.
If it's intransitive, then don't add an object onto it! But I'm also saying
that signing a message with "I remain So-and-so" is certainly NOT going to be
translated into Klingon like that! What does it really mean?
> Where do you see the objects in my sentences making jI- wrong?
{jI-} means no object. If you have an object, you cannot use {jI-}. You
cannot say *{ghot jIratlhbogh}, because {ghot} is the object of {ratlh}. If
you said *{ghot vIratlhbogh}, you've got something grammatical, although I
don't know if it makes semantic sense. You explain to me exactly what "I
remain SuStel" means, and I'll tell you how to deal with this!
--
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97323.0