tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Nov 12 14:13:10 1997

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Re: where do verb suffixes go in comparative clauses?

Good questions.

According to Anthony.Appleyard:
> 
>   Now that "the ship in which I fled" has been put back away in its hangar,
> here is another point that I apologise if it has been sorted out already:-
>   "Korax is fatter than Koloth" is {qoreQ pI' law' qolotlh pI' puS}, as is
> well known. But what if the sentence needs a verb-suffix?
>   "Korax seems to be fatter than Koloth" seems to be {qoreQ pI' law' qolotlh
> pI' puS} plus a {-law'} = "apparently" suffix with nowhere obvious to go.
>   Is it {qoreQ pI' law'law' qolotlh pI' puSlaw'}?, since the law' and the puS
> seem to be in verbal role "is many" and "is few" although they are after their
> subjects.
>   Is it {qoreQ pI'law' law' qolotlh pI'law' puS}?
>   Is it {qoreQ pI' law' qolotlh pI' puS 'e' 'oHlaw'}?
>   Or what?

I would go for the first of these two, or a couple other
variations:

qoreQ pI'law' law' qolotlh pI'law' puS. [because I think
{pI'law'} still counts as a verb describing a quality.]

qoreQ pI' law' qolotlh pI' puS 'e' vIpIH.

qoreQ pI' law' qolotlh pI' puS qar'a'? [This is a yes/no
question with the presumption that it probably should be
answered "yes". Consider that {tIn'a'?} means "Is it big?"
while {tIn qar'a'?} means something closer to "It's big, right?"]

ghaytan qoreQ pI' law' qolotlh pI' puS.

>   Likewise, if someone was expecting visitors to dinner, he might order: "Kill
> and clean the fattest male targh in my herd.";
>   we have "In my herd, kill and clean the male targh which is fattest": but in
>       {... targh'e' pI' law' Hoch pI' pus ...}

I'd probably just use {pov}:

pI'bogh targh pov yIHoH.

I would not try to combine a comparative and a relative clause.

>   I have put the -'e' on the apparent antecedent, but where does the -bogh go?

Nowhere. I don't think this is a valid combination of
grammatical elements. While {pI'law'} might still be considered
a verb of quality, {pI'bogh} is not. It's fundamental
grammatical function changed with the addition of {-bogh}. Type
9 verb suffixes tend to do that.

>   And: The noun {loD} is "male, man", but what is the adjective "male" of an
> animal? {loD 'oHbogh targh'e'}??
 
We simply don't know. This would likely work. We don't even
know whether Klingons CARE about the gender of animals. In
terms of language, they barely care about the gender of PEOPLE.

charghwI'

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