tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Jan 19 17:22:16 1997
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
RE: KLBC: shades of meaning
- From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: KLBC: shades of meaning
- Date: Mon, 20 Jan 97 01:20:45 UT
January 19, 1997 8:00 PM EST, jatlh Voqrel:
> Dajqu'bogh paq vIlaD.
> I read a very interesting book.
>
> Dajqu' paq vIlaDpu'bogh.
> The book I read was very interesting.
>
> These sentences are slightly different from one another in English; the
> first is simply a statement, while the second seems to emphasize, at
> least to me, the book which I read and not the book, say, that you read.
> My questions are these: 1) do these sentences make sense grammatically
> in Klingon first of all,
The second sentence should not have a {-pu'} in there, unless you mean to say
that the reading of the book is an act that is completed. Remember, the Type
7 verb suffixes do not represent *tense*, they indicate *aspect*, the degree
of completion of the action, or whether the act is continuous or not. {Dajqu'
paq vIlaDpu'bogh} is not wrong, it's just different than {Dajqu' paq
vIlaDbogh}, which your English version suggests is what you meant. Since
tense is not indicated by grammar in Klingon, {Dajqu' paq vIlaDbogh} could
easily be referring to an action in the past. Unless you give a time
reference ({wa'Hu' paq vIlaD}), there's no way to tell. And there's not
really much importance to it, either.
and 2) do they show in Klingon the same shades
> of meaning that they do in English?
Good question!
Yes, I'd say they do. {Dajqu'bogh paq vIlaD}. The main verb of this is
{vIlaD}. This is the main action, the one we're specifying. The object is
{Dajqu'bogh paq}. This is a book, which by the way we're describing as
interesting.
{Dajqu' paq vIlaDbogh}. The main verb of this sentence is {Dajqu'}. This is
the point of what we're talking about. The subject of this verb is {paq
vIlaDbogh}. Thus, we're talking about a book being interesting, and oh, by
the way, the book is one I read.
If you were *speaking* in a conversation, your choice of sentences would
depend on what point you were trying to make. Are you trying to say that the
book is interesting, or that you read it? The other fact is just detail. If
both were equally important, and you wanted to explain it carefully, I'd use
two sentences. {paq vIlaD. Dajqu'.} "I read the book. It was very
interesting."
--
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97054.2