tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jan 29 07:06:59 1997

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Re: KLBC: Phrases



David Trimboli wrote:
> January 28, 1997 5:48 AM EST, jatlh Perry J. Brulotte:
> > [If war is costly and war is hell then hell must be costly.]
> 
> waghchugh noH 'ej ghe'or 'oHchugh noH'e', vaj waghnIS ghe''or.

_tKD_ 4.2.2 implies that the Type 2 verbal suffixes indicate deontic
modality (the need for, or desirability of, an event); here the _must_
performs an alethic function (`it follows that hell is costly' rather
than `hell needs to be costly').  Unless there is precedent for such
use of {-nIS}, I suggest using {-law'} or nothing at all.

> > DaHjaj nuqDaq bIjaH DaneH?   ... or ... nuqDaq DaHjaj bIjaH DaneH?
> > [Where do you want to go today?]
> 
> Holtej has recently pointed out that sentences like this one are
> actually a question-as-object, a construction which, while not
> explicitly forbidded, is rather distasteful to me, and Okrand has
> implied before that it may not occur.

I must've missed that discussion.  Holtej, qay' qachvam 'e' qatlh DaQub
'e' QIjbogh jabbI'IDlIj HIngeHneS.

> Any objection to not having the *want* in there?  It's possible,
> with some twisted constructions . . .

How about {DaHjaj nuqDaq bIjaHqang?}?

> > [Better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved.][...]
> jImuSHa'pu' 'ej jIlujpu'.  ghu'vam vImaS.  not jImuSHa'pu'.
> ghu'vam vImaSbe'.
> 
> It's pretty clunky.  Anyone got a better one?

I still have a soft spot for the {paghmo' tIn mIS}-type construction:

{chaq nargh parmaq vIjonbogh;  chaq not parmaq vIjonta';
 ghu'vetlh qaq law'  ghu'vam qaq puS}.

--'Iwvan

-- 
"mIw'e' lo'lu'ta'bogh batlh tlhIHvaD vIlIH [...]
 poH vIghajchugh neH jIH, yab boghajchugh neH tlhIH"
                                  (Lewis Carroll, "_Snark_ wamlu'")
Ivan A Derzhanski  <[email protected], [email protected]>
Dept for Math Lx,  Inst for Maths & CompSci,  Bulg Acad of Sciences
Home:  cplx Iztok  bl 91,  1113 Sofia,  Bulgaria


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