tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jan 20 04:38:57 1997

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Re: KLBC:shades of meaning



In response to Caryn Law's remarks about

     Dajqu'bogh paq vIlaD.
     I read a very interesting book.

peHruS writes:

> While Dajqu'bogh paq is appears to be grammatically correct, why not
> simply use paq Dajqu'. After all, Daj is a stative verb, allowing it
> to act as an adjective merely by following the noun it modifies.

all of which seems perfectly reasonable to me, at least for this 
particular instance.  Still, Caryn's question has application for all 
verbs, not merely stative ones.  Her use of -bogh above works just as 
well to describe a book which she "bought" as well as one that happened 
to be "interesting."  Of course, if you wanted to talk about a book that 
was both purchased and interesting, I think we have some options.  One is 
to use the traditional terse Klingon approach and make two sentences of 
it:

vIje'bogh paq vIlaD. Dajqu'bogh paq vIlaD.

or make the more complex sentence by using the stative verb to modify the 
noun (as peHruS suggested):

vIje'bogh paq Dajqu' vIlaD.

While more cumbersome (though probably only a problem when taken out of 
context) this sentence is much more economical and *that* should appeal 
to the Klingon passion for linguistic brevity (if not simplicity).

Lawrence  

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