tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jun 06 07:37:33 1997
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Re: jajlo'
- From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: jajlo'
- Date: Fri, 6 Jun 97 14:10:49 UT
jatlh peHruS:
> In a message dated 97-06-04 03:24:50 EDT, ghunchu'wI' writes:
>
> << That's pushing it a bit, I think. {jatlh} appears to have the meaning
> "speak (a language)" as well as an intransitive "speak [use voice]".
> We've never seen it take anything other than a language as its object;
> any time its used as a verb of saying, the person addressed has been
> identified with {-vaD}. >>
>
> We have also seen that {jatlh} may take sentences as objects. That which is
> spoken becomes the object of {jatlh}.
This is unproven and, in my opinion, not true. In every case of {jatlh} with
a quotation, the quotation has come *after* the sentence. You might argue
that the object is just not in its normal place, but I think it makes much
more sense to say that the quotation is a separate sentence which is just
added onto one end of the sentence with the verb of saying. This would also
explain why you can have an aspect suffix on either sentence's verb.
Here are two examples:
'avwI'vaD jatlh qama jI'oj.
{jI'oj} is not the object of {jatlh}. It's another sentence.
lutlhob naDevvo' vaS'a'Daq majaHlaH'a'
They ask him, "Can we get to the Great Hall from here?"
This is {tlhob}, not {jatlh}, but it shows how verbs of saying are operating.
Notice that the translation specifically says "they ask *him*," not just "they
ask." In this case, the object of {tlhob} is almost certainly "him," the
guard to whom they are speaking.
These sentences come from the section on jokes in Power Klingon.
--
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97430.8