tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue May 13 12:13:04 1997
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Re: Must
- From: Marc Ruehlaender <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Must
- Date: Tue, 13 May 1997 14:12:54 CDT
charghwI' said a long time ago :
>
> I simply disagree. "Must" and "need to" both apply generally
> toward some sort of goal. The goal is more important than any
> individual. "If you want to get a driver's license, you need to
> take the test." "If you want to understand what is going on
> here, you must listen to me." "You must look both ways before
> crossing the street." "You need to get your hand stamped before
> you leave the concert."
>
> In each of these, there is a mission of sorts which will suffer
> if the advised action is not taken. It's the MISSION, not the
> PERSON which is important.
>
but also, each of these is very generic: the "you" in the english
could all be replaced by "one"; the statements you made are true
not only for the person you are addressing but for anyone who meets
the condition specified. This smells {-lu'}. Thus, the subject
being more or less unimportant, the focus certainly is on the action.
On the other hand, if I say {DaH jISopnIS}, it is quite unlikely
that this is generally true. The "need now" part is only true for
me, the subject. Also TKD says "suffixes of this type express how
much choice the SUBJECT has..." (p.36, emphasis added).
So, I conclude that {-nIS} et al. do say something about the subject.
Of course, the Klingon emphasises the action much more than the
English, as it does not contain any nouns; if I want to shift focus
to the subject, I still have to say {DaH jISopnIS jIH}.
I think {jISopnIS} translates best as "I need food"; no "real" verb
there, emphasis on the nouns "I" and "food". "need" merely relates
the two. In Klingon {-nIS} _modifies_ the _sentence_ {jISop} in
its entirety, all the information contained in that is equally
relevant for {-nIS}.
HomDoq