tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Oct 08 10:04:29 1997

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RE: choH yabwIj


jatlh SuStel:
> *sigh*  Here we have a discrepency in the transitivity of {choH}.
> 
> TKD simply lists it as "change."  That's one of those iffy defintions.
> In 
> Star Trek V we hear Klaa say {HIv He yIchoHmoH} "Alter the attack
> course!" 
> which indicates that {choH} has the intransitive meaning.  That is,
> the 
> subject is the thing that is changed.  This is the meaning that pagh
> was 
> using.  He was talking about his brain having changed, in that he is
> beginning 
> to read Klingon without translating it first.
> 
   Actually, in TKD, under choH we have "alter, change," suggesting that
{choH} might have just a transitive meaning, as in KGT.  However, we
still have an intransitive meaning used in ST5.  Perhpas when Klaa said
{HIv He yIchoHmoH}, he *was* using the transitive meaning, giving an
order to his crewman as "Make [the computer] alter the attack course!"
   Then, of course, we would have to deal with the problem of how this
sentence would be written, if Klaa specifically mentioned the computer.
That is, how is {-moH} used with verbs with transitive meanings (if at
all), and where in the sentence would all of the nouns go? i.e., would
Klaa's sentence be {HIv HevaD De'wI' yIchoHmoH} [Cause the computer to
alter it for the attack course], using {HIv He} as the indefinite
object, since the direct object slot is already taken up by {De'wI'}? Do
we have any other canonical uses of {-moH} on transitive verbs or the
verb {choH}?

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