tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Mar 09 08:13:42 1997
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Re: more on -moH qororvo'
jatlh ~mark:
>> Dubotchugh yIpummoH.
>> If it's in your way, cause it to fall. (passive)
>
>I still don't see any passive/active anything, except what you choose to
>impose on it. "pum" means "to fall". "To move downward unsupported under
>the influence of gravity." Stuff like that. "yIpummoH" is "cause it to
>fall." Cause the action of falling to happen with it. Where's passive or
>active?
There's been a lot of talk lately about this, so I want to get one thing
straight:
passive, I thought, was when the verb is a "be verb," like "It is happy,"
"The object is falling," or "The book is sitting on the table."
active, I thought, is everything else, like "I make myself happy," "The
object falls," or "The book sits on the table."
Am I right? If so, isn't that sentence active?
>"quv" means "to be honored". NOT passive (not in Klingon, anyway: Klingon
>has no passive. It's a state of being honored, that's all). "quvHa'"
>would be "to be dishonored," of course. And "quvHa'moH" would be "cause to
>be dishonored." Sure, it's passive in English, but what does that signify?
>It means "cause them to be in a state of dishonor."
Wait, why couldn't <jIH quv> be passive, because it's used as an adjective?
Just wondering.
-HurghwI'