tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue May 06 16:33:49 1997

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{-vaD} with qualitative verbs

jatlh DaQtIq:

> jIHvaD jang SuStel:
> >> I agree; it seems intuitive to my English mind, but I don't want to 
assume
> >> it makes sense to a Klingon mind. If <Qu'vaD lI' De'vam> makes sense, 
> >> does <Qu'vaD lI'be' De'vam> also?
> >
> >I don't see why not.  "Beneficiary" does not mean that something good
> happens 
> >to it.  "This information is not useful."  The mission is then said to be
> the 
> >beneficiary of this non-usefulness.  The mission is what "gets" the 
> >non-usefulness of the data.
> 
> Now what about other stative verbs? <Qu'vaD Qatlh De'vam> ? Is the mission 
> the beneficiary of difficult information? That makes some sense, so can I 
> use <jIHvaD Daj tlhIngan Hol>, for 'Klingon is interesting for me' ? Am I 
> the beneficiary of Klingon being interesting? Can I write an entire 
paragraph 
> only of questions? ;)

Actually, yes, these make sense, although I have trouble believing that they'd 
actually be in common use in the language.  Klingon is interesting, and this 
fact is true when applied to you.

Personally, I find this sort of thing a stretch, but we do have the canon.  I 
see the qualitative verb and {-vaD} construction as a little unnecessary in 
most circumstances, and probably vague in all of them.  Still, I don't see any 
reason that {-vaD} *can't* work with other qualitative verbs.

I've just read ~mark's post on this, and he used exactly the phrase I've been 
looking for: "as experienced by."  It seems that Valkris' statement and the 
similar one in TKD relies on the "as experienced by" meaning, while every 
other one uses the more typical meaning.  Given the relative lack of "as 
experienced by" meanings in the Klingon we have so far, I'd just assume avoid 
it until we know more, or at least make sure you're absolutely sure you're 
saying what you mean.

-- 
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97346.8

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