tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Mar 03 17:52:51 1998
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Re: taH mu' {'ej}
>Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 06:28:35 -0800 (PST)
>From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
>
>According to David Trimboli:
>
>.. [much good commentary snipped]
>> I'll point out an example which supports your usage:
>>
>> teplIj yIwoH 'ej pa'lIjDaq yIjaH!
>> Pick up your luggage and go to your room! (CK)
>
>Well, I don't really think this means, "First, pick up your
>luggage and then go to your room." I suspect the Klingon is
>suggesting that the human be in motion towards his room while
>lifting the bags from the floor. He didn't sound all that
>patient.
Sounds like you're really reaching here. I personally don't see what all
the fuss is about. We've not seen "'ej" used for time-sequences, the claim
is. That may be true (I'm not convinced it is), but even so, we've never
seen {pIH} with any prefix but {pI-}, does that mean we can't use it with
others? The existing cases of asyndeton don't seem to prove much one way
or another to me; in fact, many of them seem to be in particularly poetic
or said-for-effect sentences. {'ej} joins sentences. That's what we're
told it does. Does it mean "and simultaneously" or "and then"? Neither or
both, depending on how you look at it. The time-sequence is simply not
part of its definition, any more than it is for English "and." In fact, I
can say {HoD vIlegh 'ej la' Daleghpu'}: I see the captain, and you've
already seen the commander. The canon not only doesn't say conclusively
whether "'ej" means simultaneous or sequential, it also doesn't
convincingly (to me) indicate that it even matters.
"Pick up your bags while you go to your room," indeed. If that really is
what was meant, that's how it should have been translated.
~mark