tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jun 10 19:39:41 1997

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RE: KLBC: miscellaneous questions.



[email protected] on behalf of [email protected] wrote:

> 1 - about {'u'che'wI'} for "Master of the Universe". (SuStel, 10/06/97
> 15:31:27) :
> I did think there was some need to split the nominal sentence somewhere. But
> {'u'  che'wI'} is a noun-noun construct since {-wI'} makes a noun out of a
> verb. It
> works OK on its own, but can it be used as a simple noun in another 
noun-noun
> construct? e.g; "the Home of the M. of U. could be {juH 'u' che'wI'}?

Well, the construct would be {'u' che'wI' juH} "home of the ruler of the 
universe," "the universe's ruler's home."  Each noun possesses the one after 
it.

> 2 - about {mI'QeD} as "mathematics"[...] So {mI'tej jIH} (suggested  by
> ghunchuwI', thanx) seems the most appropriate.

I like that one the best, too.

>   b) (this is a remark on SuStel's answer) : {mI'QeD} is strictly speaking
> the
> science of numbers (arithmetics, nowdays called number theory) which is an
> essential part of mathematics but far from covering the whole subject.
> However
> since many Terran languages have this idiom, I can accept it. Anyway, I 
don't
> expect to have some day the tlhingan Hol equivalent of "symplectic fiber
> bundle".
> (BTW : the word "mathematics" comes from Ancient Greek when sciences were
> not so distinct as they are today, and it means "lesson, to learn, to study"
> - little
> relation to numbers!

{mI'QeD} is a compound noun construction which has always seemed to make sense 
to me.  A companion to {HolQeD} "linguistics."  I wonder if "the science of 
numbers" is really only arithmetic, or any use of mathematics.  What 
descriptive term would you use for anything in mathematics which does not 
include arithmetic?

> 3 - MO tells us that a sentence-as-object (with {'e'}) can only be used as
> the
> verb's object. Does it mean we have to "reverse" sentences as in :
> "That we kill prisoners shocks them." ("we kill prisoners" as subject)

You cannot construct this type of sentence in Klingon.  If you look carefully, 
you'll see the you're trying to make the sentence "we kill prisoners" the 
*subject* of the other sentence, and not the object.  {'e'} is *only* used as 
the object, never the subject.  You must recast this sentence.

> "They are shocked because we kill prisoners" (seems more Klingon)

This is the best way to go here.

qama'pu' DIHoHmo' yay' chaH

> After all, this is not a real problem as the example above demonstrates. But
> the
> first sentence sounds more natural in French. Don't forget I've got a double
> indirection tlhingan Hol->English->French and back!

Many people experience this problem, which makes me wish for more (accurate) 
translations of TKD.  If it helps, know that you're doing an excellent job!

-- 
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97443.0


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