tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jul 07 10:22:40 1998
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Re: -Curses
- From: Steven Boozer <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: -Curses
- Date: Tue, 7 Jul 1998 12:21:11 -0500 (CDT)
ghunchu'wI' answers SuStel:
: Seriously, Okrand labeled them as "Epithets" on page 178. That's a term
: with a specific grammatical meaning, and I'm going to use them that way.
:
: >Ignoring the talk about Star Trek episodes (we all know how closely they
: >follow TKD), this is the first good evidence pointing towards epithets being
: >used as nouns: the fact that nouns may be used as epithets.
:
: *Ahem*
: Epithets *are* used as nouns. Even when an epithet is actually an adjectival
: phrase like "the well-off", it's used as a noun in a sentence.
The SIL online glossary of linguistics terms (which Holtej referred us to a
couple of weeks ago) doesn't have an entry for "epithet, but
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary does:
ep.i.thet n [L epitheton, fr. Gk, fr. neut. of epithetos added, fr.
epitithenai to put on, add, fr. epi- + tithenai to put--more at do]
(1579) 1 a: a characterizing word or phrase accompanying or
occurring in place of the name of a person or thing b: a disparaging
or abusive word or phrase c: the part of a taxonomic name
identifying a subordinate unit within a genus 2 obs: expression --
ep.i.thet.ic or ep.i.thet.i.cal adj
According to definition (a), epithets act like pronouns, which also replace
nouns:
pro.noun n [ME pronom, fr. L pronomin-, pronomen, fr. pro-
for + nomin-, nomen name--more at pro-, name] (1530): any of a
small set of words in a language that are used as substitutes
for nouns or noun phrases and whose referents are named or
understood in the context
Okrand communicated privately with members of the KSRP that pronouns are a
subset of nouns (HolQeD 4.2:3), and he also wrote:
"Pronouns may be used as nouns, but only for emphasis or added
clarity." (TKD p.52)
Pulling this all together, we can say that since nouns may be used as
epithets (Ha'DIbaH, qoH, toppa', Qa'Hom, etc.) in Klingon, it follows that
epithets may also be used as nouns, of which they are a subset. Thus, they
can be the subject or object of a verb and take the nominal suffixes (-vaD,
-vo', -pu', etc.), just like names. So, I think we can confidently say
things like:
petaQ ghaH molor net Sov. "You know, of course, that Molor is a p'tak."
qatlh toDSaHvetlhvaD bIjatlh? "Why are you speaking to that tohzah?"
Of course, Maltz may just burst out laughing when he hears this...
Voragh