tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Mar 20 18:02:28 1997
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RE: KLBC: ghomvaD wa'DIch jabbI'IDwIj
- From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: KLBC: ghomvaD wa'DIch jabbI'IDwIj
- Date: Thu, 20 Mar 97 23:23:55 UT
On Thursday, March 20, 1997 12:12 AM, [email protected] on behalf of
[email protected] wrote:
> jatlh SuStel:
> <De' poQchugh vay', mutlhob 'ej vIjang.
> <If someone requires information, he asks me and I answer him.
> How about:
> De' poQchugh vay', mutlhob 'ej jISam.
> If someone requires information, he asks me and I locate it.
Good, although you'd have to say {'ej vISam} "and I locate it." "It" still
counts as an object, even if you don't see it. You have to use the suffix
{vI-}.
> <Now, what about {yu'wI'mey} for questions? I don't know if I like it; I
get
> a
> <picture in my head of a lot of mean Klingon interrogators in a dark room,
> <surrounding the latest catch. Who needs a mind sifter?
> I'm not crazy about it, but tlhobwI'mey doesn't feel like an improvement.
>
> tlhingan yu'wI'pu' vImaS law' DaH puqDaj jImol vIQulmeH mupoQqu'bogh SoS
> vImaS puS.
> I prefer Klingon interrogators to the mother who DEMANDS that I research her
> child's project NOW. (Can I put DaH at the beginning of the subordinate
> clause?)
To answer your last question first, you CAN put {DaH} or other adverbials
before clauses. (We've seen this sort of thing before.) However, {-bogh} is
part of a relative clause, not a subordinate clause. See chapter 6 of TKD.
Your sentence above doesn't work at all. You cannot use a law'/puS with
anything except qualitative verbs. You cannot construct sentences which try
to say "I prefer this more than I prefer that." You CAN make sentences which
say "This is more preferable than that." The first sentence uses {maS}, the
second uses {qaq}.
Now, the phrase you wrote was "I prefer the mother who DEMANDS me in order
that I research he child's project now." (You misspelled {jInmol}; for a
while I was wondering whom you were supposed to bury.) Does she really demand
"you"? Or does she demand the action of you researching? It's the second.
Since she demands an action, you can use a sentence-as-object: {vIQul 'e'
poQqu'} "she demands that I research." So, to throw this all together:
tlhIngan yu'wI'pu' qaq law' DaH puqDaj jInmol vIQul 'e' poQqu'bogh SoS qaq
puS.
If it is essential to indicate that this is your opinion, and not just a
general fact, you still don't need {vImaS}. You can just tack on {'e' vItu'}
to the end, or something like it.
On using "questions" the noun: not having a noun for this idea is not a
problem in Klingon. Simply phrase the sentence using verbs. It can nearly
always be done. Overusing {-wI'} is nearly as bad as overusing {-ghach}.
--
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97218.3