tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Mar 29 08:31:33 1997

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RE: KLBC: lIy Hale-Bopp

jatlh HurghwI':

> >Also, I cannot think of any verbs in Klingon which could work adjectivally, 

> >unless their TKD entry is preceded by "be."  Elsewhere, someone suggests 
> >{Qong} is also a state.  I say there is a great deal of difference between 
> >"sleep" and "be asleep," and the difference is shown exactly here.  Do you 
> >think {Qong} is stative?  How about {pum} "fall"?  Can it mean "be
> falling"?  
> >How about {Hegh}?  {HoH}?  {jach}?
> 
> If being translated with "be" is the only requirement, couldn't we just add
> <taH> to all these? <pumtaH 'oH> means "It is falling," so <pumtaH> could
> be translated as "be falling." Perhaps one reason he put the "be" there is
> to indicate intransitivity.

{taH} the verb is certainly stative, though I don't know what it really means!

{pumtaH} means "it is falling."  However, that's the present progressive in 
English, which is not the same thing as using "be" with a stative verb.  
{pumtaH} could just as accurately be translated as "it falls (continuously)."

You cannot say *{ngup wew} for "the glowing cape" any more than you can say 
*{ghot pum} for "the falling person."  They have to be {wewbogh ngup} and 
{pumbogh ghot}.  Add {-taH} if you like, it doesn't change things.  {-taH} 
simply means that whatever it is happens continuously.

-- 
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97242.1

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