tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Nov 30 13:15:37 1998
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Re: prepositional phrases
On Sun, 29 Nov 1998 20:29:42 -0800 (PST) Alan Anderson
<[email protected]> wrote:
...
> > Specifically, I'm looking for 'in the NOUN'
> >where NOUN = any noun.
>
> However, this specific phrase is generally translated using the multi-
> purpose locative noun suffix {-Daq}. {yIQDaq} "in the water" tells
> where the action of a sentence occurs; it's not necessarily the right
> way to talk about "the ship in the water", and many people think it's
> absolutely wrong to say *{mIvDaq vIghro'} for "the cat in the hat".
> Be aware that there's some debate over this topic.
vIghro''e' ngaSbogh mIv
> > I'm also looking for how to say, 'too much of
> ><something>'.
>
> Where English says "too much", Klingon often merely emphasizes the
> quality with the verb suffix {-qu'}. In TKD's appendix of useful
> phrases, we find {tujqu'choH QuQ} "the engine is overheating."
While this is true, on the online NEWS list Okrand once objected
to my carrying that generalization too far. He suggested
something that is a tool, though not an overly generalizeable
one. Typically, it takes too sentences. "I'm too late for the
meeting." {maghom vIneH 'ach jIpaS. nargh 'eb.} If I just said
{jIpaSqu'} it would not necessarily mean that I was TOO late. It
would just mean that I was VERY late. Maybe we could still meet.
I show that I was TOO late for us to meet by stating that the
opportunity escaped.
This is simply something that you need to take on a case by case
basis and translate the MEANING instead of falling back to some
pat formula. "I wanted to buy the knife, but it was too
expensive." {taj vIneH 'ach waghqu'mo' vIje'Qo'!} Just to say
{waghqu'} is not enough to show that I would not still be
willing to buy it. The whole meaning of "too expensive" is that
because it is very expensive, I'm not willing to buy it.
Basically, the English "too" in this sense means "the trait
described here has crossed a threshold which changes the
potential of the item carrying this trait". So, your job during
translation is to decide exactly what that threshold is and what
the consequences are of that crossing and explicitly describe
the implied change of potential action relating to the crossed
threshold. "If you are less than this tall, you are too
short for this ride." A Klingon might make the "mark" at eye
level instead of head level; you have to look over a fence
rather than measure yourself against a mark. {Qujvam DalIgh
DaneHchugh vaj veHvam DopDaq bIQamnIS 'ej tev DaleghnISlaH.}
> -- ghunchu'wI'
charghwI' 'utlh